Employment reports and market data
Documents
Association of Swedish Game Developers: 2024 Report
The 2024 overview of Sweden’s games industry presents a comprehensive assessment of the sector’s performance, challenges, and forward-looking dynamics within the Swedish market.
- Sweden’s games industry is undergoing a structural shift characterized by legacy studio closures offset by the emergence of new, high-performing development hubs.
- Regional clusters like Skövde have become primary drivers of industry output, exemplified by the commercial and critical success of the title Satisfactory.
- Industry resilience is supported by targeted support initiatives, including Redeye Gaming Day, Invest in Games, and the EU-funded CDG-Booster mentoring program.
Top Game Creators Academy: Tokyo Game Show 2025 Exhibition
Top Game Creators Academy (TGCA) is being introduced to the public for the first time at the Tokyo Game Show 2025, where it will occupy Hall 10’s organizer’s corner.
- The Computer Entertainment Association, in partnership with the Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Japan Arts & Culture Promotion Agency, launched the Top Game Creators Academy (TGCA) in April 2025 to accelerate the development of next-generation talent.
- The TGCA program utilizes a two-year pipeline structure that pairs emerging developers with active industry advisors to facilitate professional growth and global market entry.
- Ten emerging developers are debuting work-in-progress titles at the Tokyo Game Show 2025 in Hall 10, representing diverse genres including 3D action, 2D puzzle platformers, horror, and rhythm-action.
Game Developer Employment: Career Formation of Student Game Creators 2019 Survey 2025
The 2025 Japanese survey of students’ career aspirations investigates how the role of “game creator” is perceived across gender, age, and educational level, aiming to gauge the pipeline of future talent for the domestic game development sector.
- A significant gender divide exists in career aspirations, with game creator ranking as the top choice for male elementary and middle school students while placing nineteenth for females.
- The appeal of a game development career for males remains consistently high, appearing in the top two career choices for students from grade three through nine.
- Approximately 80% of higher-education students interested in game creation view the role as a professional career path rather than a hobby or secondary activity.
Big Games Industry Employment Survey 2025: Salaries, Compensation Trends and State of the Games Sector in Europe
The European games industry entered 2025 in a state of significant distress, characterized by widespread layoffs, stagnant wages, and a sharp decline in employee well-being.
- The European games industry is in a state of contraction, with 26% of professionals experiencing layoffs and 39% of junior-level talent exiting the sector entirely.
- Financial stability has become the primary motivator for 87% of the workforce, leading many to accept pay cuts or inferior contract terms to maintain employment.
- Over 50% of the workforce reports suffering from professional burnout, while 67% of companies now lack dedicated diversity and inclusion specialists.
Making Games, Making Future: Inside the Realities of Game Careers
This research examines the professional landscape of the global gaming industry, drawing on a survey of over 160 professionals conducted during Gamescom 2025.
- Despite 76% of professionals reporting high job satisfaction, the industry's Net Promoter Score (NPS) has plummeted to -40, signaling a collapse in trust regarding long-term career sustainability.
- The industry is experiencing a talent bottleneck as recruitment slows and employers prioritize senior staff, leaving nearly half of the workforce concentrated in the 6-to-10-year experience bracket.
- Systemic instability is driving professional disillusionment, with 54% of respondents citing low compensation, 43% citing job insecurity, and 30% citing burnout as primary deterrents.
Climbing to the C-Suite: Insights from Mission One's Gerard Miles
Executive headhunting functions as a sophisticated, relationship-driven mechanism akin to mergers and acquisitions, where the primary objective is aligning top-tier leadership talent with the critical strategic needs of an organization.
- Executive advancement requires a shift from tactical craft-based contributions to a focus on organizational health, with a proven track record of three-to-five-year tenures serving as the primary currency for C-suite eligibility.
- To remain competitive in the current market, executives must move beyond superficial AI trends and acquire formal technical literacy to demonstrate how these technologies drive measurable business value.
- Candidates frequently undermine their prospects by failing to demonstrate genuine curiosity about a firm's specific products and challenges, necessitating a transition from transactional negotiation to meaningful, prepared engagement.
CESA Game Industry Report 2024
The 2024 CESA Game Industry Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the global and domestic Japanese gaming landscape, marking a significant evolution from previous industry white papers.
- The global game-content market reached approximately ¥30 trillion in 2024, nearly doubling from the ¥20 trillion recorded in 2020.
- Mobile gaming remains the dominant global platform, accounting for approximately 60% of total revenue, while console and PC sectors each hold roughly 20% shares.
- Japanese game exports generate approximately ¥2.82 trillion, representing about 60% of the country's total ¥4.7 trillion content industry exports.
The Way We Work: Embracing Human Sustainability in Game Development
The game development industry currently faces a systemic crisis characterized by high burnout rates and a remarkably short professional shelf life for developers, typically spanning only three to seven years.
- The game industry faces a significant labor crisis, evidenced by the loss of 18,000 jobs, which has eliminated critical institutional knowledge and created a volatile environment for developers.
- Funding models, particularly those driven by private equity and venture capital, often prioritize 'pattern matching' over innovation, leading to a 'smash and grab' economy that excludes underserved audiences and underrepresented stories.
- Sustainable studio culture requires moving beyond superficial perks to deliberate, values-first hiring and inclusive practices that acknowledge how different employees experience the same workplace environment.
Now Is the Time! Workers in Games Are Ready to Form Unions
The game industry currently faces a critical juncture where widespread layoffs, precarious job security, and unilateral management decisions have necessitated a shift toward collective labor organization.
- Game industry workers are increasingly pursuing unionization to transition from individual advocacy to a structured, democratic system of negotiation that secures legally binding contracts.
- Collective bargaining is being utilized to address systemic issues such as widespread layoffs, job insecurity, and unilateral management decisions regarding remote work and unpaid testing.
- Strategic organizing efforts, supported by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), prioritize building studio-level supermajorities to establish industry-wide labor standards.
Game Developer Index: Sweden 2024
The analysis evaluates the health and trajectory of Sweden’s video-game sector during 2023-24, mapping its economic performance, creative output, ecosystem structure and emerging challenges.
- Sweden’s video-game sector grew to SEK 90.4 billion in total global revenue in 2023-24, a 4.5% increase, while domestic net sales rose 6% to SEK 34.6 billion.
- The industry’s footprint expanded to 1,010 registered firms, with Swedish-owned companies now operating 218 subsidiaries across 54 countries and employing 15,792 staff abroad.
- Major commercial successes like 'Helldivers 2', which sold 12 million copies in three months, and 'Satisfactory', which reached 6 million copies, drove significant market presence and over 700 million streamed hours in 2023.
Game Development and the Green Transition: Code, Climate, Creativity
The global games industry is uniquely positioned to act as both a participant in and a catalyst for the green transition.
- The Swedish games industry grew nearly 900% in turnover between 2012 and 2023, reaching €3.1 billion while maintaining a relatively low carbon footprint compared to other industrial sectors.
- Scope 3 emissions—primarily generated by energy consumption during player use—account for 90–99% of the Swedish games sector's total carbon footprint.
- Global gaming emissions are estimated at 14 Mt CO₂e annually, roughly equivalent to the total industrial emissions of Sweden.
How To Reinvent Yourself During A Market Downturn
Navigating professional transitions during market instability requires a proactive shift in mindset, viewing career pivots as strategic opportunities for growth rather than unavoidable setbacks.
- Modern gaming roles increasingly require a hybrid skill set that integrates marketing, community management, and commerce expertise.
- Professionals should treat market downturns as strategic opportunities to pivot by identifying specific industry gaps and designing roles that provide clear business value.
- To remain competitive, workers must leverage AI tools for efficiency and idea generation while prioritizing irreplaceable human traits like strategic intuition and soft skills.