Neogames: Finland's video game industry revenue reached €2.4 billion in 2020

The Finnish gaming organization Neogames has prepared a report on how 2020 went for the Finnish video game industry. Its total turnover increased by 9% and reached the level of €2.4 billion. Despite the fact that mobile remained the main platform for local developers, more and more studios began to make games for consoles.

Key findings from the report:

• in 2020, the net profit of the Finnish industry exceeded €500 million. Unfortunately, analysts did not provide comparative data for 2019;

Revenue of the Finnish gaming industryin 2019-2020, Finnish developers received almost €100 million in investments (the purchase of the studio Seriously by Playtika was not taken into account.

• The volume of the transaction, according to approximate estimates, could exceed € 250 million);
• by the end of last year, there were 200 game studios in Finland — 20 fewer companies than in 2018. Neogames explained the reduction in their number by the fact that competition in the global market has become more aggressive, and it has become more difficult to launch a new studio in Finland;

Number of Finnish studiosat the same time, more gaming companies have appeared in the country, which have earned over a million euros in a year.

• 46 studios in 2020 versus 34 studios in 2018;
• Supercell has ceased to be responsible for the lion’s share of the total revenue of the industry. If in 2015 it generated almost 88% of the total income of the Finnish game developer, then in 2020 it is already only 54%;
• Although there are fewer gaming companies in Finland, the number of employees in them has increased. At the end of 2020, 3,600 people worked there. For comparison, in 2018, 3,200 people worked in the studios. In the next couple of years, the companies plan to hire 400-1000 more specialists;

Number of employees in Finnish studios28% of Finnish studio employees are foreigners.

• 13% — not from the European Union;
• over the past two years, about 100 new games have been released in the country;
• most local studios in 2019-2020 developed games for all major platforms: PC, consoles and mobile.
• as for the situation with individual platforms, mobile has ceased to clearly dominate. In 2017-2018, 75% of developers made games on Android, and 71% — on iOS. In 2019-2020, 65% and 62%, respectively, chose these platforms;
• the PC turned out to be a little less popular. Over the past two years, 46% of Finnish developers have chosen it, compared to 50% in 2017-2018;
• but the consoles have strengthened their position, and all at once. The number of developers of games for Nintendo rose by three percentage points (up to 23%), developers of games for Xbox — also by three points (up to 21%) and developers of games for PlayStation — by five points (up to 21%).

Platforms on which developers work in Finland”Although the Finnish gaming industry has survived the pandemic better than most creative industries, COVID-19 has become a challenge for it as well.

For example, deals were concluded longer, the workload of developers increased, and they were tired and depressed because of remote work,” writes Neogames. “But for the gaming industry, the consequences were indirect, and it is not yet possible to estimate how long the impact of the pandemic will be.”