Study: One Third of AAA Game Developers Use Proprietary Engines
In studios developing AAA-level games, the popularity of proprietary engines has grown. This conclusion was reached by researchers from Perforce and JetBrains, who surveyed 521 developers from 49 countries.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
36% of those surveyed from AAA teams told Perforce and JetBrains that they are currently developing at least part of their games on proprietary engines. For comparison, in 2024, 27% of respondents reported using their own tools. This means that over the year, their share increased by 9‰.
Nevertheless, the most in-demand engines remain Unreal Engine and Unity, used by 58% (-1‰) and 34% (+5‰) of AAA game developers respectively. It should be noted that respondents could list multiple engines, so the total percentage exceeds 100.
Interestingly, in 2025, 5% of AAA game developers stated that some of their titles are based on Godot, whereas in 2024, hardly any large studios utilized this engine. Another 3% reported working with Open 3D Engine.
Among mid-sized studios and indie teams, the popularity of proprietary engines is understandably low — only 7% (-3‰) use them. Generally, these developers also prefer to create games on Unreal Engine (65%, -1‰) and Unity (49%, -3‰).
Which engines indie teams, mid-sized studios, and AAA studios use