Trying to focus on different gaming markets, this time we are moving north. And Finland’s gaming industry, one of the biggest in Europe, is in our crosshairs. Read more about it all in the Neogames report.

A side note: Germany’s Mobile Gamers 2023

The Finnish game market is one of the five biggest in Europe – you’ve probably heard of such titles as Control, Hill Climb Racing and, of course, Angry Birds. All of this has made it possible for Finnish developers to bring in the first 3 billion euros in 2021 – a sum the country’s gaming sector has never earned before. The years 2021 and 2022 were followed by economic growth for game developers, as the average revenue for these two years was in the region of €3.2 billion.

Finland's gaming industry
Evolution of sector profits by year

In just 10 years, the gaming sector brought in €23 billion, of which 10% went to taxes.

In the last two years, the country’s game studios have collectively attracted €300 million in investments (half of this amount is a €150 million loan from Supercell to Metacore). In comparison, for 2019-2020, significantly less was received – €100 million. Also during this time, 7 Finnish studios were bought and absorbed by larger contractors.

On average, Finnish companies launched 50 games a year between 2021 and 2022, which is 50% less than in the same year 2020. But this is primarily due to a drop in developer interest in the hyper-casual environment.

In total, during the existence of the game industry, Finns have opened 650 game companies, 66% of which are fully immersed in mobile game and app development, and 64% (as strange as it may seem, some studios are engaged in multiplatform games) develop games for PC.

Distribution of studios by region

Finnish game developers are actively exploring new opportunities in the game market, such as artificial intelligence, web3, new platforms, diverse monetisation models and user-generated content.

Game studios are closely following the rapid development of AI, but practical implementations in game development are still ongoing. AI is expected to significantly improve production efficiency and create increasingly personalised game experiences.

The full report can be found here.

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