4 min read
Netflix is doubling down on gaming with the acquisition of Ready Player Me, an Estonia based avatar creation platform announced on December 19, 2025.
The strategic buyout marks a pivotal evolution in Netflix’s push into interactive entertainment, enabling subscribers to craft personalized 3D avatars that persist across multiple games on the platform, transforming passive streaming into a more unified, identity driven gaming ecosystem.
In a post to his LinkedIn profile, Ready Player Me CEO Timmu Tõke wrote:
I’m excited to announce that Ready Player Me has been acquired by Netflix.
Our team will be joining Netflix to contribute to their gaming strategy with our cross-game avatar tech, enabling players to carry their identities and fandom across games.
We started the company 12 years ago with Rainer, Kaspar and Haver. We were 20-year-olds from small towns in Estonia. We knew nothing about tech or startups, but were obsessed with avatars. Over the last 12 years, we have built many different products around avatars, from hardware scanners to personal avatar tech and eventually launching Ready Player Me more than 5 years ago.
I’m very proud of the work with did with Ready Player Me, pushing cross-game interoperability further than anyone else before and serving thousands of developers.
We learned a lot as founders throughout those years and managed to build an incredible team that worked very hard to build this company. We were lucky to raise $72m and work with some of the best investors in the world. I’m incredibly grateful for the support and partnership from Andreessen Horowitz, Plural, Konvoy, Riccardo Zacconi, Sebastian Knutsson, Marc Petit, Joshua S. Duyan, Startup Wise Guys and our earliest backers Mart Habakuk and Estonian Business School. There were many others that supported and helped us along the way, thank you to all of you!
Our vision has always been to enable avatars and identities to travel across many games and virtual worlds. We’ve been on an independent path to make that vision a reality for a long time. I’m now very excited for the Ready Player Me team to join Netflix to scale our tech and expertise to a global audience and contribute to the exciting vision Netflix has for gaming.
Financial terms remain undisclosed, but Ready Player Me’s 72 million dollars in prior venture funding from major investors underscores the company’s value. The startup’s team of around 20 employees will integrate into Netflix’s gaming division, although only co founder and chief technology officer Rainer Selvet will officially join from the four founders. Standalone services, including the online avatar tool PlayerZero, will shut down on January 31, 2026, as the technology shifts to Netflix exclusive use.
Founded in 2014 in Tallinn, Ready Player Me pioneered cross platform digital identity through its software development kit, enabling customizable 3D avatars used across thousands of games and applications. The technology allows users to generate realistic avatars from selfies and use them across different virtual environments. Over time, the platform secured partnerships for branded avatars and virtual items, helping establish it as a widely adopted identity layer in interactive experiences.
Netflix’s gaming ambitions began in 2021 with mobile titles offered at no extra cost to subscribers. Since then, the company has expanded to more than 100 games, including adaptations of well known franchises and original titles. Recent strategy shifts emphasize TV based and cloud style gaming through the Netflix app, with a growing focus on multiplayer and party experiences where persistent avatars can strengthen social interaction.
Avatars that travel between games can reinforce personalization, social play, and long term engagement, potentially improving retention across Netflix’s global user base.
While the company has not announced a timeline for rollout, early integration could appear in upcoming multiplayer or party focused titles.
As competitors invest heavily in identity driven virtual ecosystems, Netflix is positioning gaming as a core extension of its entertainment offering.
