Samsung is connecting new research about family time to Amazon Luna GameNight on its Smart TVs. In a Samsung-commissioned Ipsos survey, 79% of U.S. respondents with minor children in their households wanted more quality time with their kids. Another 84% said they at least sometimes multitask on devices during family time.
For its holiday campaign, Samsung is promoting party games that turn those same phones into controllers. Prime members can access GameNight through Amazon Luna on compatible Samsung Smart TVs, with everyone taking part on one screen.
Parents Want More Family Time at Home
Even getting everyone to agree on an activity can be difficult. Among respondents with minor children at home, 58% struggled to find activities everyone liked. Another 80% wanted more activities they could do together at home, and 87% considered the holidays important for family activities.
Ipsos surveyed 1,803 U.S. adults aged 18 to 64 online from September 29 to October 2, 2026. The family-time figures come from the 727 respondents with minor children in their households. Ipsos reports a credibility interval of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points for that group. The survey covers what people said about their habits and priorities, not whether GameNight has changed them.
Samsung can track which games and services people use, but that doesn’t tell it how many families are playing together. Kevin Beatty, Head of Product for Samsung Visual Display, told us, “we can’t tell exactly who’s playing together in someone’s living room.”
Samsung Promotes Phone-Controlled GameNight on Its TVs
With Luna GameNight, the game appears on the TV, and everyone joins through a phone. A host needs Luna Standard, which is included with Amazon Prime. Other people can join supported games by scanning the QR code onscreen, without their own Luna subscription or a traditional gamepad.
Samsung and Amazon held a Play Together event in New York City on October 14 to demonstrate the experience. Guests played Cranium Planet, which has teams drawing and acting out clues, and Fibbage XL, where everyone invents fake answers to trivia questions and tries to fool their friends. Beatty also recalled Taboo and Draw & Guess being played that evening.
Nearly everyone brought a guest, including family members and children. Many wouldn’t call themselves gamers, and most attendees didn’t know each other beyond the people they arrived with. With phones handling the controls, “there wasn’t much of a learning curve,” Beatty said. He recalled strangers talking, laughing and getting competitive almost immediately.
Social Gaming Is Becoming a Bigger Part of Gaming Hub
Samsung’s Gaming Curation team already promotes games in dedicated rows on the TV Home screen, Beatty said. Someone browsing for a movie or show might notice a party game without opening Gaming Hub first.
We reported in August that Play.Works monthly active users on Samsung TVs increased fivefold in North America and elevenfold globally between June 2025 and June 2026. Amazon has separately reported that Luna’s user base grew fivefold since its October 2025 relaunch. Those numbers aren’t directly comparable. Play.Works counts monthly active users of its games on Samsung Gaming Hub. Amazon’s figure refers to Luna’s overall user base.
Beatty sees social and casual games becoming more important alongside traditional gaming. Samsung is also bringing trivia and polling to Samsung TV Plus, expanding how people can interact with what’s on their TVs.
For Samsung, getting people interested in these experiences is only part of the challenge. The company also wants to make them easier to discover, especially for people who wouldn’t normally think about playing games on their TVs.
“Finding something to play should feel as natural as finding something to watch,” Beatty said.
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