GameFly, the No. 1 U.S. video game rental service by subscribers, on Wednesday filed to go public in a bid to raise as much as $50 million.

Launched in 2002, GameFly has amassed over 334,000 subscribers and offers 7,000 titles. The service, which works like Netflix, allows members to order games online to have mailed one or more game titles out at a time without late fees. The subscription service price ranges $15.95 to $36.95 per month, providing members as many as four game rentals at a time without due dates.

The Los Angeles-based startup reported a profit of $4 million on revenue of 84.7 million for its fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. GameFly ships games titles from four distribution centers -- Lakewood, California; Emsworth, Pennsylvania; Tampa, Florida; and Austin, Texas.

GameFly is backed by venture firms Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital. Sequoia holds a 51.56 percent stake in the company and partner Michael Moritz is a board member of the games rental service.

Researcher IDC forecasts the number of games consoles will rise to 131 million in 2013 from roughly 44 million in 2008.

GameFly has a gang of rivals including Gamerang, RentZero, GameMine, and Gottaplay. But the big entrants to watch out for are Blockbuster and Netflix. Blockbuster has already begun a pilot "Games by Mail" program in 2009 that is offered to customers in Cleveland, Ohio and Seattle, Washington.

"Netflix, which currently offers only online subscription services for movies or other entertainment content, may in the future include video games in its service offering," GameFly wrote in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Lead underwriters in the offering include BofA Merrill Lynch and Piper Jaffray. The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "GFLY."