Since 2019, the companies that make up the Croatian video game industry have seen an increase in revenue and profit, which in 2021 exceeded HRK 90.5 million in total, and the share of exports in revenue is 80 percent, or twice as much as the entire IT industry, it was said at the presentation on Tuesday new analyzes of Croatian gaming.

This is the first analysis of the Croatian video game industry from 2019 to 2021, produced by the Cluster of Croatian Video Game Producers with the support of A1 Croatia.

The analysis was presented on Tuesday at the A1 Croatia conference. The Secretary General of the Cluster, Aleksandar Gavrilović, says that the total revenues and profits refer to 66 companies that in Croatia are mostly engaged in the development of video games, but also do other things, and that employ almost 500 people in total.

The high potential of the Croatian gaming industry is shown by data on the revenues and profits of these companies, whose total profit in 2021 was over HRK 90.5 million, while in 2019 it was almost HRK 34 million.

In 2021, total revenues reached almost HRK 486 million, in contrast to 2019, when they were HRK 281.4 million.

“Taking into account these figures, as well as the fact that the dominant form of work in the industry is an indefinite employment contract, we come to the conclusion that it is the gaming industry that turns artists into creators of Croatian export products that are enjoyed by tens of millions of people around the world,” he said. is Gavrilović.

He added that unlike many other sectors, gaming has only recently begun to take itself more seriously as an industry.

According to the analysis, among the companies with the highest revenues in 2021, Nanobit stood out with approximately HRK 301 million in revenue, while the second was Abest with HRK 54.2 million in revenue, and the third was Gamepires with HRK 27.3 million in revenue. That company was recently bought by the American Jagex, but they did not disclose the details of the transaction.

In the top five are the companies Orqa, which also deals with other things, with revenues of HRK 11.3 million, and DEV with HRK 9.1 million.

Most of the employed – artists

Surveying for the purposes of analysis of gaming companies, they found data that the majority of employees are men, and 78 percent are on indefinite contracts, which, according to Gavrilović, is also a very rare example in Croatia.

Most of them, 60 percent, are between the ages of 26 and 35, and only 2.5 percent of them are foreign nationals, while according to occupations, most of them, or 28 percent, are various types of visual artists, followed by programmers with a share of 24 percent each. video game designers and producers.

Two-thirds of the analyzed companies work exclusively on their game products, many of which include various Croatian destinations and attractions, such as Šibenik, Vučedol, Gorski kotar, Dubrovnik, Žumberk and others.

“In 2021, it became apparent that it is possible to make money from video games by working in completely different genres, which range from, for example, Escape Simulator performed by Pine Studio in Samobor to casual mobile games by Nanobit in Zagreb to high-budget PC titles such as Gamepires’ SCUM, which and one of the best-selling games in the world, or Croteam’s Serious Sam series,” emphasized Gavrilović.

Based on the analysis, Cluster president and Nanobit business director Ivan Murat assessed that the great power of the gaming industry marks it as one of the drivers of economic development in Croatia, but in order for it to be even stronger, some prerequisites are needed.

These are greater investments in education, to introduce something related to gaming into education, as well as to simplify the bureaucracy, encourage the development of studies and change public opinion.

“The growth potential of this industry is 10 times compared to the current state, and in order to achieve this, the help of the state is also needed, from incentives for development to the introduction of school programs”, said Murat.