Netflix signals its entrance into gaming as its animated series “Arcane” explodes
Updated: Jul 7, 2022
Just as 2021 draws to a close, it was a safe bet for “end-of-the-year” entertainment reports to announce “Squid Game”, which premiered on Netflix in September, as the most-watched and most-talked-about tv show for the past 12 months. But out-of-nowhere and just before the year ends came this November surprise: animated series Arcane: League of legends took Netflix and the world by storm, exploding with amazing viewership numbers. Becoming Netflix's most-watched program ever in practically no time has immediately won the series a second season production guarantee.
“Arcane” is actually the prequel to the “League of Legends” video game and tells the story of two opposing worlds: the advanced, utopian city of Piltover and the torn-down under-city of Zaun. Within this background, the two main characters, young sisters Vi and Jinx, find themselves on different sides of a war over ideology and technology.
“League of Legends” is currently ranked 25th in the list of most-played video games by player count with a peak of 111 million monthly players, not bad for a game that hit the market in 2009. Riot Games, the company which produced the game and the television series, is definitely expecting the number of users to grow as a result of the new interest in the brand. But becoming so popular on television in such a very short time can only be explained by the fact that not only those who know or have played the game also watched it. It is a series that stands on its own, with amazing animation, strong characters, and an interesting plot. And as per various critics, there is a general recommendation that anyone can watch the show even if he or she never played the game before.
Over the summer, Netflix announced its intention of adding gaming to its service. With its current base of 207 million worldwide subscribers, Netflix continues to invest millions of dollars in programming, as it is the streaming service’s bread-and-butter. What Netflix's entrance into gaming means is that it will simply offer a greater variety of entertainment to its huge subscribers base, with a special focus on the younger generation who are more prone to play video games.
There were very positive discussions about “Arcane” over the web since its launch. Affogata, which tracks and analyses product, service, and marketing trends for companies, reports that the show garnered a high brand sentiment score of 7.6 over the last few weeks after viewers, who watched the first season 9-episodes run, were highly praising it. Just as it won in the ratings, viewers' feedback for “Arcane” also surpassed the one about “Squid Game” which only scored a 4.6.
As the show debuted on November 6th, just 20 days ahead of Black Friday, some of the discussions revolved around whether customers should continue to watch the show or concentrate on their shopping.
Putting such funny comments aside, “Arcane” drew many positive comments over its amazing animation, and for those who played the game in the past, it brought back nostalgic memories, always a good factor when it comes to consumerism.
Affogata continues to track and monitor customers' feedback from many different points all over the web and deliver real-time analysis of such feedback for companies to understand their market position. Many gaming companies register Affogata’s services and the customer feedback data analysis assists them in improving their games, marketing efforts, and customer services.