The inaugural Cyprus Video Game Industry Report shows the island ranks first in the world per capita for game companies, revenue and installs, and third globally for mobile downloads, ahead of the US.
Cyprus has more game companies, generates more games revenue and produces more mobile game installs per person than any other country in the world, according to the first Cyprus Video Game Industry Report, published today by CYGMA, the Cyprus Game Makers Association.
More than 400 game companies operate from an island of one million people — 415 per million against Finland’s 48, the next densest market anywhere — generating over €3.2 billion in revenue in 2025 and ranking Cyprus third globally for mobile game downloads, ahead of the United States. Until now, none of it had been measured.
The report is the first attempt to count and describe an industry that grew without appearing in any global ranking. Cyprus was the last EU member state without a national games trade association, and with no organization collecting the data, the sector remained invisible in the statistics governments, investors and universities rely on.
Andrey Ivashentsev, General Manager of CYGMA said:
“Over the past decade, Cyprus has built one of the world’s most remarkable video game development ecosystems. Yet outside the industry, very few people are aware of its true scale. By all three measures, Cyprus is the most efficient video game development country in the world today. This is not a future ambition. It is the reality of the industry that already exists here.”
The figures, drawn from AppMagic, Sensor Tower, InvestGame and Cyprus’s Registrar of Companies, show an industry that expanded sharply between 2019 and 2024. Company numbers rose from 169 to 393 and employment tripled from 1,438 to 4,320. The sector’s contribution to national GDP grew from 1.3% to 3.3%, reaching €1.15 billion. All of these figures cover game development only; iGaming is a separately regulated industry and no iGaming company appears anywhere in the report.
Key findings:
- First in the world per capita on game companies, games revenue and mobile game downloads — €3,200 of game revenue per person against Finland’s €509
- Third globally for mobile game downloads, behind China and Vietnam and ahead of the United States; eleventh for mobile in-app revenue
- €2.76 billion in disclosed M&A since 2020, including Easybrain’s €1.06 billion sale to Miniclip in 2025 — 4.4% of the world’s disclosed games M&A deals above $10 million
- 86% of the island’s €1.4 billion PC and console revenue is earned off Steam, reflecting a direct-to-consumer expertise built more than a decade before the model went mainstream
- €128.3 million of user-acquisition financing committed in 2025 alone, close to the €137.0 million raised in equity across the previous six years
The company count was built from the ground up — publishers and developers listing Cyprus on distribution platforms, cross-checked against the Registrar of Companies, with 415 of 431 companies confirmed by entity code, address and directors.
Rhys Elliott, Head of Market Analysis at Alinea Analytics, said:
“Sound research isn’t about producing the biggest number and overly optimistic growth shares — it’s about producing something realistic and defensible. We worked through how this report was built from the ground up, including the sources, the definitions, the assumptions, and the conclusions drawn from them. The result is a methodology that stands up to scrutiny and a picture of the Cyprus games industry that stakeholders can plan around.”
Chris Hewish, President of Xsolla said:
“We expect 2026 to be a defining year for D2C as infrastructure matures, adoption expands across studio sizes and geographies, and direct access to players becomes recognized not just as a margin story, but as a long-term competitive advantage. Cyprus, home to a concentration of mobile-first, globally operating studios, is well positioned for that future.”
The report also identifies where the sector is constrained. Cypriot universities produce between three and six graduates a year from a dedicated game development pathway, against demand the report models at 100 to 300 junior hires.
From January 2, 2027, foreign-interest companies operating in Cyprus are assessed against a commitment that 30% of their workforce is Cypriot or EU. CYGMA is working with Cypriot universities to introduce dedicated game development specializations, which the report estimates could add 45 to 85 industry-ready graduates a year.
The second constraint is early-stage funding. Cyprus has no games-specific instrument for new studios before the Plug&Play accelerator launching in 2026, and only three Series B+ rounds have been raised in six years. CYGMA is working with government and funding bodies on this alongside the talent pipeline.
Alongside the constraints, the report sets out why companies choose Cyprus and stay: full EU membership, a legal framework international investors recognize, and a decade of disclosed acquisitions behind companies founded on the island.
The Cyprus Video Game Industry Report 2025 is published annually and is available in full here.
