The revenue of the Swedish gaming industry has quadrupled in revenue over the past five years

For understanding: if by the end of 2017, Swedish gaming companies earned € 1.7 billion on games, then by the end of 2021, this amount has already jumped to €5.8 billion.

The main driver of growth, GamesIndustry reports, is due to the fact that Swedish gaming companies have started buying up foreign studios in recent years. The revenue of the latter, as expected, began to be added to the revenue of their new owners.

The most striking example here is Embracer Group, whose portfolio today includes 127 studios, employing about 15 thousand people in 40 countries around the world. In his footsteps are such local stars as Stillfront, Thunderful, and Enad Global 7.

In 2017, foreign units accounted for €100 million in Swedish industry-wide revenue. By the end of 2021, this amount has reached an astronomical €3.1 billion.

Despite the global expansion, the number of game studios is also growing rapidly in Sweden itself. Over the past five years, their number has increased by 78%. At the end of 2021, there were 785 gaming-related companies operating in the country.

Here, however, it is important to clarify that 49% of local companies are solo developers, and another 40% are teams that employ less than 10 people. In total, 8 thousand people are employed in the Swedish industry (70% more than five years ago).

Sweden ranks third in Europe in terms of the number of gaming companies. Great Britain is in the first place, and France is in the second.