Serbia's top 15 gaming cos boost revenue 17% in 2023

"Although the global gaming industry was marked by instability in 2023, we are pleased that there were no major closures of studios or projects in Serbia," SGA said in an annual gaming industry report prepared in cooperation with the PwC Serbia team and published on Friday.

Last year, 30 new Serbian games were published, down from 51 in 2022. Serbian games were downloaded/purchased more than 100 million times last year, SGA said, adding that currently 38 teams are developing 81 games.

The top three markets in terms of 2023 revenue were the US, the European Union, and the UK.

The number of employees in the sector jumped by 98% to an estimated 4,300 last year, with 48% of the total being foreign nationals.

"The explanation for such growth is simple – a large number of gaming professionals and their families from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus moved to Serbia last year. Some of the leading global companies now have their largest representations in Serbia – Wargaming, Playrix, and Sperasoft are some of them," the report said.

Serbia's three largest cities - Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis, remained the main development hubs in 2023. The estimated number of companies, studios and indie teams engaged in the sector is 150, SGA said. Around of third of the companies have offices outside Serbia as well, while 25% of all to open subsidiaries abroad in the future.

SGA was founded in March 2018 in Belgrade as a non-governmental, non-profit organisation dedicated to the development of the Serbian gaming industry. Its members are teams, companies and individuals engaged in the production of video games in Serbia.

($ = 0.939 euro)