Netflix Is Expanding Its Kids’ Worlds Beyond the Shows

By Kyra Greene

Netflix is giving some of its youngest viewers more ways to stay connected to the characters and worlds they already know. The company announced a new expansion of its preschool and kids lineup on September 24, adding new series, films and games while extending relationships with established properties including Sesame Street and Gabby’s Dollhouse. About Netflix

The announcement extends Netflix’s agreement with Sesame Workshop through Season 62 of Sesame Street, while Netflix, Sesame Workshop and Rideback are also developing a Sesame Street film. Meanwhile, Gabby’s Dollhouse is growing with Doozie’s Doghouse, a new companion series centered on Gabby’s sister, and Gabby’s Dollhouse: Makers and Bakers, which moves the property into a crafting and baking competition format. About Netflix

Those extensions are arriving around franchises that already have significant audiences on the service. Netflix says the first 13 seasons of Gabby’s Dollhouse have accumulated more than 670 million views since 2024, while Season 14 recently reached the Netflix Global Top 10 in 63 countries. Rather than leaving that audience with another season of the same program, Netflix is giving viewers additional doors into the same world. About Netflix

Games are becoming another one of those doors. Netflix Playground, the company’s game app for children eight and under, is adding experiences based on Trash Truck, Numberblocks and KPop Demon Hunters. Netflix says Playground has ranked among its 10 most-played mobile games every week since its launch. The app is included with a Netflix membership without additional fees or in-app purchases. About Netflix

Netflix is also experimenting with how children move through the service itself. The company has introduced a low-stimulation collection featuring slower-paced programming, alongside preschool and kids playlists that continuously move from one episode to another. Its Bedtime Stories with Netflix Jr. podcast has also expanded onto the Netflix app after accumulating more than 19 million listens and listening hours across podcast platforms and Netflix Jr. YouTube. About Netflix

The size of the audience helps explain the attention. Kids and family viewing represented 15 percent of Netflix’s total viewing hours during the first half of 2026, according to the company, and children’s programming has accumulated 106 billion viewing hours since the beginning of 2023. About Netflix

None of this means Netflix has suddenly invented the idea of extending children’s characters across formats. Children’s entertainment has long moved between television, movies, toys, games and other experiences. What is notable in Netflix’s announcement is how many of those connections are increasingly being assembled around the same membership.

That makes this more than a list of new kids shows, but it is still a play unfolding in real time. Netflix is taking familiar worlds and giving children more places to encounter them — watching Sesame Street, entering a Gabby’s Dollhouse spinoff, playing with familiar characters or moving through programming selected specifically for their age and stage.

For now, the move is straightforward: when children find a world they want to return to, Netflix wants to give them somewhere else inside that world to go. About Netflix