The IGEA says the Australian game development industry numbers are looking good. Really good.
Results from the fifth annual Australian Game Development Survey (AGDS) 2021 released by the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association show the Australian game dev industry has doubled its revenue to $226 million over the past five years. This is huge.
The survey shows that just over the past three years, the industry has recorded year-on-year revenue growth of over 20%, with an increase of 23% in 2021 alone. 2021 also saw a 7% increase in employment growth, with employment growing over 50% in 2016 to 1,327 full-time workers in the game development industry in Australia. This year, we’ve also been able to see a vast improvement in gender diversity in the workforce with 23% of employees identifying as cisgender women and 10% identifying as trans, non-binary, or gender diverse.
In response to how these numbers look in comparison to past years in the Australian game development industry, IGEA CEO Ron Curry says that “the numbers really speak for themselves” in a statement obtained by Kotaku Australia.
“Where we are today really shows the promise of the Australian game development industry as an economic reviver for Australia,” Curry states. “Five years ago we had only 63 studios participating in the survey. This year we had 187, nearly three times that. Revenue generated by the industry has doubled since then, in spite of the pandemic there’s been resilient employment, there wasn’t a halt in revenue growth in 2019 to 2020, and we saw an increase in employment in the past year too.”
Discussing what these figures could mean for the future of the industry, Curry says, “We can expect to see exponential growth locally which will contribute further to the Australian economy, and support from State and Federal Governments now they’ve realised that games provide a vital source of connection, enjoyment, education and wellbeing.”
With reference to this, it is important to note that the funding of projects from bodies such as Film Victoria have done wonders for the games industry in Australia. In terms of if the figures could improve even more with greater government initiative, Curry gave us a resounding “definitely”.
“One of the biggest challenges studios face is accessing appropriate government funding, so having more options available will help studios grow further.” Curry continues, “It will also entice multinationals to expand into Australia, which in turn will attract specialised talent to move here, which will support the local industry even further given the main challenge studios face is a lack of specialised talent locally.”
The boosting of those working in the Australian game development industry is something incredibly important to me. The industry is choc-a-bloc with incredible talent that I’ve had the luxury to talk to recently, and at the rate that the industry is heading in, we should look forward to more fantastic work coming from Aussie game devs in the future.
Leave a Reply