The Polish video game industry is growing, with 13 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) having a combined worth of nearly PLN 9.5 billion and generating PLN 270 million in earnings last year. These WSE-listed developers contributed over PLN 67 million in taxes to the Polish treasury in 2016.
02
Poland is a significant test market for game soft launches, particularly for mobile games, due to its comparable market significance to the US, UK, or Germany, and lower user acquisition costs compared to Western or Asian markets. While the percentage of paying players and amounts spent are lower than in Western Europe or North America, the gap is narrowing.
03
The PlayStation brand, especially the PS4, dominates the console market in Poland, significantly outselling Xbox One. This trend is partly attributed to the high system requirements of cross-platform titles like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which encouraged many PC players to switch to consoles for a smaller hardware investment.
04
The age distribution of Polish gamers shifted in 2016, with a significant decrease in the 15-24 age group (from 43% in 2015 to 31% in 2016), largely due to their migration from social network and PC gaming to mobile games (a 5% increase in mobile gaming for this age group).
05
Asian companies are increasingly acquiring Western game developers and publishers, a trend observed over the past 1.5 years, with examples including Youzu buying Bigpoint, Netmarble acquiring Kabam, and Tencent purchasing Supercell. This indicates a growing interest from Asian giants and media conglomerates in the global video game market.
Insights
01
The Polish video game industry is growing, with 13 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) having a combined worth of nearly PLN 9.5 billion and generating PLN 270 million in earnings last year. These WSE-listed developers contributed over PLN 67 million in taxes to the Polish treasury in 2016.
02
Poland is a significant test market for game soft launches, particularly for mobile games, due to its comparable market significance to the US, UK, or Germany, and lower user acquisition costs compared to Western or Asian markets. While the percentage of paying players and amounts spent are lower than in Western Europe or North America, the gap is narrowing.
03
The PlayStation brand, especially the PS4, dominates the console market in Poland, significantly outselling Xbox One. This trend is partly attributed to the high system requirements of cross-platform titles like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which encouraged many PC players to switch to consoles for a smaller hardware investment.
04
The age distribution of Polish gamers shifted in 2016, with a significant decrease in the 15-24 age group (from 43% in 2015 to 31% in 2016), largely due to their migration from social network and PC gaming to mobile games (a 5% increase in mobile gaming for this age group).
05
Asian companies are increasingly acquiring Western game developers and publishers, a trend observed over the past 1.5 years, with examples including Youzu buying Bigpoint, Netmarble acquiring Kabam, and Tencent purchasing Supercell. This indicates a growing interest from Asian giants and media conglomerates in the global video game market.