Ready Player Me Discontinued (Jan 31, 2026): What Happened and How to Migrate
Yes — Ready Player Me was discontinued on January 31, 2026. Netflix acquired the company in December 2025, and the public platform — the avatar creator, PlayerZero and the developer APIs — went offline on that date. Avatars you had already exported as GLB files still work, because they are standard files. Anything served from Ready Player Me’s servers, including the hosted avatars and the API, does not.
If your product depended on Ready Player Me, Avatar SDK is the closest production replacement: selfie-based 3D avatars, an embeddable creator, GLB/FBX export and Unity, Unreal and Web SDKs.
What happened to Ready Player Me
- December 2025 — Netflix acquired Ready Player Me.
- January 31, 2026 — the public platform was shut down: the avatar creator, PlayerZero and the developer APIs stopped being available.
- Since then, integrations that called Ready Player Me at runtime no longer function, and avatars that lived on RPM’s servers can no longer be fetched.
What it means for your project
- Files you already exported are fine. A GLB is a standard glTF file — it still loads in Unity, Unreal, Blender, three.js and any web viewer, exactly as before.
- Hosted avatars and API calls are gone. If your app generated or fetched avatars through RPM at runtime, that path is dead and needs replacing.
- New avatar creation needs a new provider. Your users can no longer make avatars through Ready Player Me at all.
Migrating to Avatar SDK
Avatar SDK covers the same job Ready Player Me did, with a deliberately familiar integration shape:
- Familiar integration flow — MetaPerson Creator embeds via iframe + JS API, much like RPM’s creator did
- Engine-ready workflows for Web, Unity and Unreal
- Configurable exports — LODs, formats (GLB/glTF and FBX) and texture resolutions
- Avatar styles from cartoon to photorealistic, generated from a single selfie
- Advanced generation options — REST API and on-premises/offline deployment (Enterprise plan)
- Real-time voice-driven facial animation with LiveSpeak
- Hands-on migration support with sample projects and integration guidance
Integration in three steps
- Embed MetaPerson Creator in your app and customize it for your use case.
- Create an avatar from a selfie and configure its appearance in real time.
- Export the avatar as GLB or FBX and load it straight into your app or engine.
Over the years we have helped many products migrate — either replacing Ready Player Me with Avatar SDK, or running the two side by side before the shutdown. The detailed technical path, including API mapping and the GLB pipeline, is in our Ready Player Me migration guide.
Frequently asked questions
Was Ready Player Me discontinued?
Yes. Ready Player Me was discontinued on January 31, 2026, after Netflix acquired the company in December 2025. The avatar creator, PlayerZero and the developer APIs were all taken offline.
When did Ready Player Me shut down?
The public platform went offline on January 31, 2026. The acquisition by Netflix was announced in December 2025.
Do my exported Ready Player Me avatars still work?
Yes, if you exported them as files. A GLB is a standard glTF model and still loads in Unity, Unreal, Blender and web viewers. Avatars that were only stored on Ready Player Me’s servers cannot be retrieved.
What is the best Ready Player Me alternative?
For a production replacement with the same selfie-to-avatar flow, an embeddable creator and GLB export, Avatar SDK’s MetaPerson is the closest match — see the Ready Player Me alternative page. For anime-style avatars, VRoid Studio is a free option; for cinematic Unreal characters, MetaHuman Creator.
How do I migrate from Ready Player Me?
Replace the RPM creator embed with MetaPerson Creator (iframe + JS API), keep your existing GLB pipeline, and swap any runtime API calls for the Avatar SDK equivalents. The full mapping is in the migration guide.
Want to evaluate first? Try the free online 3D character creator or the 3D avatar maker — or contact us at support@avatarsdk.com to talk through your migration.