German Cities Miss Out on the Top 10 European Gaming Hubs

For the first time, Europe's gaming umbrella organisations have published a list of the top 20 game development locations in their report. While the UK has five cities in the top 10, German cities only appear from eleventh place onwards. Munich is not in the top 20, nor are any cities in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The list of Europe's top 20 gaming hubs clearly shows that Germany still has some catching up to do as a production location for games, at least in terms of employment figures. The list comes from the new report recently published by the two European umbrella organisations Videogames Europe (VGE) and European Games Developer Federation (EGDF).

According to the report, the largest game development location in Europe in terms of employee numbers is Istanbul in Turkey. It is followed by London (UK) and Stockholm (Sweden) with only slightly fewer employees. Barcelona (Spain) in fourth place is the only gaming hub besides the top three that has more than 5,000 employees in game studios. At least according to the list available. The authors have pointed out a significant limitation, however. Data from three countries is missing, namely France, Poland and Romania. It is questionable whether Bucharest would have made it into the top 20. The situation is different for Paris and Warsaw, which definitely have top 10 potential.

British cities in particular can therefore look forward to a place in the top half of the top 20. In addition to London, the hubs Oxford-Guildford (5), Manchester-Liverpool (6), Edinburgh (9) and Royal Leamington Spa (10) are also included.

The highest-ranked city in Germany is Berlin in 11th place. Hamburg just manages to beat Amsterdam into 14th place, while Frankfurt, with studios such as Crytek, Keen Games and Deck13, comes in at 17th. Munich did not make it into the top 20, nor did any locations in North Rhine-Westphalia such as Düsseldorf or Cologne. Vienna is also not represented on the list. They are all marked on the illustrated map of Europe and are therefore likely to be somewhere between 21st and 40th place.

Key reported* European Game Dev Hubs by Number of Employees

Largest hubs (main per country)

Istanbul (Turkey): 6150
London (UK): 5930
Stockholm (Sweden); 5820
Barcelona (Spain): 5170
Oxford-Guildford (UK): 4750
Manchester-Liverpool (UK): 3500
Belgrade (Serbia): 3000
Helsinki (Finland): 2700
City of Edinburgh (UK): 2650
Royal Leamington Spa (UK): 2510
Berlin (Germany): 2430
Vilnius (Lithuania): 2300
Ankara (Turkey): 1930
Hamburg (Germany): 1870
Amsterdam (Netherlands):1790
Malmö (Sweden): 1770
Frankfurt (Germany): 1660
Prague (Czechia): 1660
Novi Sad (Serbia): 1000
Brno (Czechia): 900

*Data from Poland, France and Romania is missing from 2023 figures

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