Netflix Buys Ready Player Me, an Avatar-Creation Developer, to Let Users Make Their Own Gaming Personas

Netflix will soon let customers make their own customized gaming avatars — which will travel across the streamer’s collection of titles — through the acquisition of Ready Player Me, an avatar-creation platform based in Estonia.

Netflix said it will use Ready Player Me’s development tools and infrastructure to power cross-game avatars, making it “fun and engaging for players to carry their personalities and fandom across multiple games.” The streamer didn’t provide a timeline for when Netflix gamers would be able to use the Ready Player Me-enabled avatars.

“Four years into our games journey, we’re proud of the progress so far and remain committed to giving members even more ways to be entertained on Netflix,” a Netflix rep said.

With Netflix’s acquisition, Ready Player Me’s services will be shut down on Jan. 31, 2026, according to its website. Under its previous business model, Ready Player provided developers with “an easy-to-integrate Avatar Creator and developer tools to give their users highly personalized avatars to help increase retention and engagement.” The company claims its tools have been “trusted by 25,000+ developers.”

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Ready Player Me had raised $72 million in funding, according to a TechCrunch report. Investors include Endeavor, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Konvoy Ventures, Plural and angel investors including King Games co-founders Riccardo Zacconi and Sebastian Knutsson, and, Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch and Fractal.

About 20 employees of Ready Player Me will be joining Netflix, including co-founder and CTO Rainer Selvet. The company was started in 2014 by Selvet, CEO Timmu Tõke, chief content officer Kaspar Tiri and COO Haver Järveoja; the latter three co-founders are not joining Netflix.

Here’s an animation showing Ready Player Me’s avatar-creation tool in action:

Alain Tascan, formerly with Epic Games, joined Netflix as president of games in mid-2024. Under his leadership, the company’s strategy is focused on party games, narrative games, kids games and “mainstream” games. Netflix also is bringing more games to connected-TV devices, in addition to mobile.

Netflix recently released a slate of party games for TVs. New mobile titles include “Netflix Puzzled,” “PAW Patrol Academy,” “WWE2K25” and “Red Dead Redemption,” and “Best Guess Live” with hosts Hunter March and Howie Mandel. This week, Netflix announced a new FIFA soccer title coming to TVs in time for the World Cup in June-July 2026.