The Game City 2015 Report that was recently released reveals great signs of development in southern Sweden. 

The yearly published Game City Survey exists to highlight the digital games industry in southern Sweden, and is published by Game City – a non-profit industry organization based in Malmö.

The goal of the survey is to gather necessary data from all active games companies and organizations in Skåne and Blekinge, the two most southern provinces of Sweden. The resulting raw data and analysis can then be used to track developments in the games industry in that particular region.

In addition to the survey, the report gathers information from various other sources, such as the Dataspelsbranschen’s Game Developer Index, and allabolag.se, for all companies listed as in some way being involved with game development.

 

What the report reveals is that in southern Sweden, the gaming industry has grown 56.8% in the past year, a major part of which is thanks to the presence of King’s studio in Malmö. The combined companies in the survey had a total turnover of SEK 919 million in FY 2014 (FY meaning Fiscal Year, instead of the calendar year).

To dive into a few of the studios mentioned in the survey, Ubisoft’s Massive are up over 18% since 2013, and Mediocre is up by 137,33% since 2013, resulting in SEK 32 million. Illusion Labs has a turnover of SEK 27.7 million, and Tarsier Studios of SEK 26.5 million.

Of the 55 organizations in the survey, 34 are based in Malmö, 11 in Karlshamn and 6 in Helsingborg. The remaining 4 are based in Karlskrona, Kristianstad, Lund and Ronneby respectively. Malmö, for the time being, is thus still the far most popular choice. 

On a positive note, because of a globalized talent pool, there are opportunities all over the world, for both male and female talent. According to the Dataspelsbranschen’s Game Developer Index 18% of the workforce were women in 2014, up from 16% in 2013.

Lastly, as of October 2015 there are an estimated total of 692 people involved in game development in the region.

Read the full Game City Survey here.