It’s Official: The Australian Games Industry Is Smashing It

It’s Official: The Australian Games Industry Is Smashing It

According to the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), the Australian video games industry has almost doubled in size in the last six years.

This information comes from the sixth annual Australian Game Development Survey (AGDS), an annual survey conducted by the IGEA that looks at the industry as a whole.

One of the biggest points to come out of the survey is that in the last year alone, the Australian games industry has grown by 770 new jobs. As well as this, the industry has also seen a 148% increase in revenue since the first survey in 2016.

Here are a few other big points from the report, which you can view in full on the IGEA website:

  • $284.4 million generated by Australian game development studios in 2021/2022 (26% increase over the previous year)
  • 2104 full-time employees in Australian game development studios (59% increase over the previous year)
  • 69% of studios planning to hire new staff in 2022/2023 (an estimate of 300+ new hires)
  • 85% of respondents developing their own IP
  • 84% of revenue coming from outside of Australia

In a statement regarding the survey, CEO of IGEA Ron Curry said:

“The growth in revenue, employment and confidence in the local game development sector is fantastic. Businesses are maturing, studios are performing well, development teams are expanding and international companies and investors are taking notice of Australia. State and federal governments are recognising the positive impact the local games industry has on the economy and are supporting the sector with tangible benefits such as the Federal Government’s Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO).”

The survey has also listed the 3 biggest challenges facing the industry. The first is finding employees with specialised skills, with programmers and engineers being the highest in demand.

The second is attracting early-stage development funding, which could see improvement with the rise of state government funding for game development in Australia.

However, the third is a lack of appropriate state/territory government funding, which suggests that the rest of the country could benefit from taking a leaf out of VicScreen and Screen Queensland‘s books.

Despite that, this year’s been a pretty wicked year for the Australian games industry, from the ripper releases we’ve seen like Cult of the Lamb and Wylde Flowers to the potential hits we saw this year at PAX Australia. Now we’ve got the numbers to prove it!


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