Sweden’s game industry grew to US$1.54 billion in 2016

The Swedish Game Developer Index was just released on the 5th of September. The report tracks the growth of the local industry and is showing some impressive numbers.

Minecraft, Battlefield 1, Goat Simulator, Candy Crush Saga, Star Wars Battlefront are just some of the notable games that have come out of Sweden.

According to the most recent Swedish Game Developer Index, Sweden has shown some great growth over 2012 to 2016:

From US$466 million to US$1.54 billion in revenue (+233.9%)
From 145 to 287 game studios (+97.9%)
From 1967 to 4267 employees (+116.9%)
From 293 to 786 women (+168.3%)

All of the above comes off the back of major acquisitions of Swedish studios Mojang (known for the sandbox game Minecraft) in 2014 and King (known for mobile game Candy Crush Saga) in 2016. Each studio was acquired for the huge figures of US$2.5 billion and US$5.9 billion respectively.

The Swedish games industry provides a great example for other countries who want to move into the space. The area is showing strong growth and is capturing the eyes of big companies not usually associated with video games.

Companies and investors should keep in mind that the global games industry has shown a growth of 56% over the last 5 years (Newzoo, 2017). A number to keep a special eye on is the Asia-Pacific region which Newzoo notes is expected to generate 47% of global game revenues in 2017 (US$51.2 billion).