A new report by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development has found Poland’s video gaming workforce to be among the largest in Europe.
The report, titled The Game Industry of Poland Report 2023, notes that the Polish games industry is growing consistently with record numbers year after year.
Rising up the ranks
In total, the report states that there are 15,290 people in employment in Polish games production, meaning the country has finally surpassed Germany and found itself a place in Europe’s top three countries in this metric. As for the number of game producers and publishers employing such numbers, the total has now reached 494.
The percentage of women in this workforce is also noteworthy as one of the highest globally, at 24 percent.
Not only that, Poland’s employment growth is in fact the fastest in Europe, estimated to be somewhere between 23 and 27 percent year-on-year since 2017. Workforce distribution across companies is varied, but the majority of teams (78 percent) comprise fewer than 25 employees. Meanwhile, 16 companies have more than 200 employees and 56 have more than 50 people per team.
As for foreign employees, Ukrainians represent the largest proportion.
On the revenue side, Poland still has room to grow – its workforce ranking not currently mirroring its earnings. While Poland’s games industry generated €1.286 billion in revenue last year, it still ranked behind the UK (which also has Europe’s biggest workforce), France, Germany, Finland and Sweden.
"Today, the Polish computer game industry is the synonym of quality, creativity, and innovation. It is worth remembering, however, that this was not always the case. This sector of the economy has transformed over the last twenty years from a niche into a billion-dollar business," said Polish Agency for Enterprise Development president Dariusz Budrowski.
The full report includes data and profiles on 190 Polish game companies.
This spring, game developer Virtuos announced a new branch of the company in Poland dedicated to developing "best-in-class" graphics.
