German Games Industry: Slower Employment Growth and Fewer New Companies
– 3 min read
The upward trend in the German games industry is slowing. The number of German games companies grew by four per cent in twelve months, and the number of people employed by devs and publishers increased by 3.5 per cent. This is considerably less than in previous years.
The German games industry is now experiencing a slowdown in the upward trend of recent years. Following growth of 15 per cent a year ago, the number of games companies has only increased by four per cent in the past twelve months to a total of 948. In particular, the number of companies that exclusively develop games is on the rise, increasing by six per cent in the past year to 477. A further 52 companies in Germany specialise in publishing and 419 are active in both development and publishing. This represents an overall increase of 52 per cent in the number of games companies in Germany since 2020. This was announced today by game - The German Games Industry Association on the basis of data from gamesmap.de in cooperation with Goldmedia for the period up to 14 June 2024.
The number of employees in German games companies continued to grow, but at only half the rate of the previous year. The number of employees at game development studios and publishers rose to 12,408 in the past twelve months, an increase of around 3.5 per cent on the previous year's figure of 11,992. This compares to growth of seven per cent from 2022 to 2023.
"At first glance, the weakened yet still positive trend appears contradictory against the backdrop of the current overall decline in investment momentum and major waves of consolidation in the international games industry. While the current consolidation wave has indeed affected German game companies, its impact here has been less pronounced than in general internationally", the association writes. One reason for this is that many games companies in Germany are currently still working on projects funded by the German government, which has helped to stabilise the entire industry.
In addition to those working in publishing and development, an estimated 20,000 people are employed in the games sector. This means that the games industry provides employment for more than 30,000 people in Germany, including skilled professionals in educational institutions, the media, and the public and commercial sectors.
"Games funding plays a decisive role in this. Although the on-going application freeze for the federal games funding has hampered the development of new projects for over a year now, the fact that many German studios were still in the middle of federally funded projects gave them stability. However, if the German government doesn't ensure funding budgets at an internationally comparable level soon, the prospects for game companies will be all the more unclear. Along with the consolidation wave," says Felix Falk, Managing Director of game – the German Games Industry Association. "The current unpredictable and non-competitive framework conditions in Germany have now slowed the strong growth of recent years. The German government must finally make the promised funds available and return to the path of an ambitious policy of single-source game funding, as it announced in its latest growth initiative."
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