Cyprus hosts more video game companies per capita than any other country, generating over €3.2 billion in industry revenue in 2025, according to the Cyprus Video Game Industry Report 2025 published Tuesday by the Cyprus Game Makers Association (CYGMA).

The report identifies 431 game companies on the island, 415 of them verified through the Registrar of Companies, and records more than 4,300 employees. With a population of around one million, Cyprus ranks first worldwide per capita for company count, industry revenue and mobile game installs. Cyprus-based publishers rank third globally for mobile downloads.

CYGMA General Director Andrey Ivashentsev said more than 400 studios and ecosystem businesses now operate on the island, ranging from large international companies to independent creators and specialist service providers, generating more than €3 billion in annual gross revenue. That places Cyprus among Europe's ten largest markets in the sector by revenue, he said.

"This isn't a future goal," Ivashentsev said. "It's the reality of the industry that already exists here."

How fast has the sector grown?

Between 2019 and 2024, the number of companies rose from 169 to 393, a 133% increase. Employment rose 200%, from 1,438 to 4,320 workers. The strongest year was 2022, when employment grew 43% and company count grew 24.3%; in 2024 growth slowed to 6% and 8.3% respectively.

Turnover for game development and publishing companies rose from €1.26 billion in 2019 to €4.35 billion in 2024, and the sector's contribution to GDP climbed from roughly €300 million to €1.15 billion — lifting its share of national GDP from 1.3% to 3.3%.

The report notes the employment figures cover workers employed and taxed in Cyprus, with company counts cross-checked against the Registrar of Companies.

Where does the money come from?

Mobile dominates. Of the €3.2 billion estimated for 2025, roughly €1.8 billion came from mobile games and €1.4 billion from PC and console titles. Cyprus-based companies released 571 new mobile games in 2025, attracting 615 million downloads; the country ranks third in the world for mobile game downloads and eleventh for in-app purchase revenue.

Back catalogues carry the business. Of the €1.8 billion in mobile revenue, only €66 million — 4% — came from titles released in 2025. In PC and console, 36 new titles sold about 1.5 million copies, with roughly €200 million of the €1.4 billion total recorded through Steam; the remaining 86% came mainly from direct sales and other channels. The report attributes this to direct-to-consumer expertise developed more than a decade before that distribution model became widely established.

M&A activity since 2020 totals €2.76 billion in disclosed deals, including the sale of Easybrain to Miniclip for €1.06 billion in 2025 — a deal the report says represents 4.4% of disclosed mergers and acquisitions over $10 million in the global game industry.

What is holding it back?

Almost all games produced in Cyprus target users abroad, and most studios focus on mobile, but the sector faces two constraints: scarce specialised staff and limited early-stage financing. Cypriot universities currently graduate just three to six students a year from specialised game development programmes, against estimated demand of 100 to 300 entry-level hires.

CYGMA is working with universities on new digital game development specialisations the report estimates could add 45 to 85 trained graduates annually.

In the report's foreword, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou describes game development as a sector at "the cutting edge of the digital economy," and says Cyprus aims to strengthen its position as a technology and innovation hub for the wider region.

Whether the university pipeline scales fast enough to sustain a sector growing at 6-8% annually will be the key signal to watch when CYGMA updates its figures next year.