In Russia, the number of video game publishers has been growing more rapidly
Russian entrepreneurs have become increasingly active in opening game publishing companies, writes “Kommersant” citing data from the Rusprofile service. From January to August 2026, 121 publishers were registered in Russia, in the form of full-fledged companies and individual entrepreneurs.
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For comparison: in the same period last year, 76 were opened—1.5 times fewer.
However, by the end of September, some of the new publishers had closed for various reasons. It is reported that as of now, out of 121 organizations, 111 remain operational.
Notably, the companies and individual entrepreneurs opened in the eight months of 2026 already account for one-fifth of all active publishers registered in Russia. According to Rusprofile, there are currently 544 publishers operating in Russia, with 72% working as individual entrepreneurs. About ten are in the process of liquidation, reorganization, or bankruptcy.
Experts interviewed by “Kommersant” speculate that the widespread adoption of neural networks could be a catalyst for launching new publishers. Artificial intelligence has lowered the barrier for entry into game development, resulting in more new games appearing on the market and consequently increasing the need for publishers. Moreover, the registration of legal entities is often required to receive government support, which could also motivate even small teams to officially open a company.
In addition, “Kommersant” named the top 3 Russian video game publishers by revenue for 2025:
- OOO “Lesta Games Agency” — 29 billion rubles;
- OOO “Astrum” — 3.3 billion rubles;
- OOO “Eksbo Sever” — 2.2 billion rubles.
Important: Rusprofile categorizes as publishers all organizations with OKVED: 58.21 — “Publishing of computer games.”