GIC reports UK games development sector growing at near record pace
GIC’s latest giant annual survey of UK games development companies for trade body TIGA has revealed the scale and growth of the UK games sector in unprecedented detail.
24,155 work full time in games development, growing at an annual rate of 11.4% between 2022 and 2023.
The games sector employs over 25,000 people, including freelancers.
The number of jobs in the supply chain reliant on games development companies rose to over 44,000.
Games companies invested over £1.66 billion in games development in the 12 months to April 2023.
The games development industry added an estimated £3.7 billion to the UK economy and paid over £1.5 billion in tax.
This is the 12th report that GIC has produced on the UK sector since 2008. We conduct an extensive survey of studio founders and management supported by data derived from company announcements and annual returns to scale the number of development staff working in the sector. We review multiple data sources for companies including national and regional trade body lists as well as Companies House data. This exhaustive approach allows us to untangle and de-dupe complex multi-company studio structures, and keep track of company dormancies and closures to compile the definitive list of extant trading games development companies in the UK.
As a result, GIC’s database represents the largest, longest running and most consistent dataset on the UK games development sector’s scale, impact and health.
This in turn allows longitudinal analysis of multiple facets of the UK development sector including employment, regional spread of companies, foreign direct investment, the impact of Video Games Tax Relief and the platform choices of companies at different scales as well as challenges such as company mortality, dormancy and potential downsizing by global companies. We also produce special sections on the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish games development sectors.
The full survey is available for TIGA here.
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