A record number of games in development, with the highest revenues so far – read the new report on the Serbian gaming industry for 2024
In the latest report, you can get a detailed insight into what the state of the local gaming industry was in 2024, as well as how the ecosystem grew from 2017 onwards. It is clear that we are still in the phase of crisis management that occurred after COVID, but it turned out that the situation in Serbia is perhaps better than the global average.
Here are some key takeaways from 2024:
- Games created in Serbia (too) have been downloaded on platforms almost 300 million times;
- This year, it is estimated that 130 new positions will be opened (a record low);
- 31% of all employees are women, and they lead a third of all teams;
- 55% of studios and teams develop original IPs;
- It is estimated that around 100 studios and teams were operating last year;
- 44 games have been released, and 84 are currently in development;
- Mobile games once again lead the way in terms of total revenue;
- The largest 15 companies generated an income of 214 million euros, which is 22% more than in 2023!
This year, we also collected completely new data, so you can find out for the first time in the report for 2024:
- How many studies use AI and in which areas;
- How satisfied the studios are with the success of their games;
- What languages are the games localized into;
- What percentage of companies are completely Serbian-owned, and how many are not;
- Which local and foreign gaming events are the most visited and why.
You can check out the whole report here.
OTHER DATA
It is estimated that 4,500 game dev professionals were employed in 2023, which is 200 more than in 2022. Considering the record low number of new positions planned for 2025, the period of rapid growth of the industry has clearly come to an end and the time of its stabilization has begun.
In the report, you can view more precise data about revenues, companies, employees, games and the ecosystem. Most companies and studios produce their own games, which means that they are successful enough to ensure the studio’s independence, team expansion and work on new projects.
In cooperation with the PwC Serbia team, we analyzed revenues and other information on the performance of the largest gaming companies on our market. In addition, their team of experts wrote an article clarifying all the information gathered.
The main development centers are Belgrade and Novi Sad. The top three areas by number of employees are QA, programming and 3D art, and for the first time, we also gathered information about which departments employ the most women. These are QA, Biz Support (HR, Finance, Legal…) and 2D Art and Animation. The most challenging to hire are programmers, seniors in any position, as well as business support roles.
Most of the companies pointed out that they see high taxes, a lack of support in Serbia for the platform on which they publish games and inadequate tax incentives as key obstacles in their business.
In addition to a handful of data, you can also read texts by local and global industry experts in the report, focused on business topics and ecosystem development. We also shared news about developments in education and various programs within the industry.