Europe's Games Industry 2023: More Studios, More Employees, Less Revenue

The two European gaming umbrella organisations, Video Games Europe (VGE) and the European Games Developer Federation (EGDF), have published their new report shortly before gamescom. It includes data from 22 European countries for the year 2023, with some surprising results.

The fact that the report only presents figures from 2023 also has to do with the diversity of European gaming markets. This is because not all countries have their gaming markets analysed in real time by market researchers, who are usually expensive. That is why the two gaming associations are focusing on the year 2023 in the new edition of their report, even though data from 2024 is already available for most key markets such as the UK, Germany and France.

Despite the time lag, the results of this unbiased pan-European analysis are exciting. Looking back, it is clear that the studio landscape remained stable in 2023, despite numerous layoffs and studio closures, and even grew. More specifically, the number of game development studios in the 22 markets surveyed rose from 5,300 companies in 2022 to 5,900 companies in 2023. At the same time, the number of employees rose from 90,000 to 91,000.

The only negative development was in industry turnover in these 22 countries, which totalled 18.7 billion Euro. However, the decline was only one per cent and was relatively moderate.

For 2023, the Report compiles aggregated national data from 22 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

"Looking ahead, the European video game industry stands at a pivotal moment. The resilience shown in 2023, combined with continued innovation, growing talent pools, and targeted public support, provides a strong foundation for renewed growth. With the right policy environment and investment climate, Europe is well-positioned to lead the next chapter of global game development", wrote Hester Woodliffe, VGE Chair, and Hendrik Lesser, President of EGDF, in their foreword.