Top image: The House of Tesla by Blue Brain Games
This year the Slovakian games industry is expected to generate an estimated €70.3 million in turnover, slightly up from €70.1 million in 2023, but a long way removed from the pandemic-induced highs of 2021 and 2022 (€80 million and €77.1 million respectively). The fact that the top 10% of companies in Slovakia are responsible for 83.5% of all revenues is a strong indication that the industry is still unbalanced. Pixel Federation is still the biggest game studio in the country, both in employment (270 workers) and revenue.
All these numbers and more interesting facts about the Slovakian games industry are taken from the annual report from the Slovak Game Developers Association (SGDA). They paint a realistic picture of the stated of this small but growing industry.
The Slovak games industry is relatively young and slowly growing with 69 active companies in 2024. While 31% of companies have been operating for 6 to 10 years, 14% have been active for over 15 years. The sector predominantly consists of private companies, which account for 89% of all game development businesses. The industry is largely focused (77%) on creating its own games, while 14% specialize in outsourcing game co-development.
Talent shortages
Slovakia’s game development is mainly concentrated in Bratislava, with 46% of companies based there and only 20% in Košice. The remaining 34% are distributed across other locations. The industry employs approximately 1,100 professionals in 2024, up from 1,017 in 2023. The average age of employees is 31 years and 21% of the workforce is female. Talent shortages remain a significant challenge. Programmers are the most difficult roles to fill, with 30.4% of companies reporting challenges in hiring them. Game designers and graphic artists are also in demand, with 15.9% and 13% respectively.
In 2023, Slovak developers released 237 games, 80 of those were own games and 137 were games created in cooperation with a third party. The majority of these games target the PC platform, accounting for 72.5% of releases. Mobile games follow, with 31%, while consoles like PlayStation and Xbox each represent 18.8% of game releases.
Check out this and more information about the Slovak games industry here.