Domestic revenue for the Swedish games industry grew by 6.4% year-on-year to SEK 34.6 billion ($3.17 billion) in 2023, according to the latest report from trade body Dataspelsbranschen.
The Swedish games industry body said in its latest game developer index that sales have doubled over the past five years.
The number of gaming companies in Sweden also increased by 8% to 1,010 last year, with 108 new gaming companies set up in 2023.
The number of employees grew at the same rate, with 9,089 people working in Swedish industry in 2023. 75.8% of them were men and 23.7% were women – while the country's industry is overwhelmingly male, the number of women increased by 23.7% year-on-year.
The report highlighted that despite layoffs and studio closures, the number of new hires increased by just under 30% compared to 2022.
Looking at Swedish gaming companies, around 42% of them are self-employed, while 39% have less than five employees. Large companies with more than 250 employees represent only 1% of the total.
Nine firms reported over SEK 1 billion ($92 million) in revenue for the period, including King, Mojang, Paradox Interactive and EA Dice.
“2023 was supposed to be a really bad year for Swedish game companies,” said CEO Per Strömbäck. “But it turned out to be a new record year. Employment was up. So were incomes. And the number of women. The increases weren't as big as some previous years, but still: very high all the time. It wasn't all sunshine and soda popin' 2023, though.”
He mentioned that investment has decreased due to a number of factors, including low interest rates, inflation, layoffs and school closings.
“But the investments increased again in 2024,” he continued. “The number of employees of Swedish companies abroad has also decreased due to the sale of foreign subsidiaries (but overall sales have increased).
“Why are Swedish game companies going against the grain of the economic crisis? The best answer is that we make good games. And we make many different kinds of games that appeal to many different types of players. From simple puzzles to almost infinitely detailed strategy games for big and small, technologically groundbreaking or ingenious Swedish game companies.
Last month, we spoke with Paradox Deputy CEO Mattias Lilja about how the Swedish developer overcame delays, developer splits and the cancellation of Life By You.