Exclusive SGN Research Gives Snapshot Of Industry In 2020 & 2021
Scotland’s Games Industry Data: How big is Scotland’s games sector? How many development studios are out there? Believe it or not, no part of the government or public sector in Scotland captures data on the games industry.
View: Scotland’s Games Industry Data
For such a significant sector, this seems crazy. It leaves games at a huge disadvantage to other sectors such as film/screen, fintech, data and even blockchain.
In 2020, with the aid of Creative Informatics, I set out to gather data on the games ecosystem across Scotland. The studios, the development companies, tools and tech providers, universities, colleges, freelancers and as many games-related companies as I could find.
This was based on my own lists, created over 20 years running the SGN website, existing games industry maps and months of research across business directories, Companies House, social media and online stores.
View: Scotland’s Games Industry Data
The answer to the question – how many game developers are in Scotland – comes to an unbelievable 484. There are a further 34 ‘tech’ companies and 74 ‘other’ games-adjacent companies doing everything from art and animation to music, recruitment and design.
And that total is unbelievable. Those numbers come with caveats:
- This data is from 2020/21
- Many of the listed companies exist only within Companies House, so have no apparent online activity or output
- Some companies have registered as game creators, which have nothing to do with games (selling cash registers for example…)
However, with the release of Creative Informatics book: Data Driven Innovation for the Creative Industries, we are finally releasing the whole data set into the public domain. It is there for researchers, students, the media, government and public sector to use as they wish.
This Google sheet can be viewed here and is open for comments. You can also download an Exel version of the full data set here:
Mapping The Future
Since this research was undertaken, the games ecosystem in Scotland has continued to grow and evolve. The fact that this is the only time the sector has been mapped in Scotland – and is a snapshot of the ecosystem in 2021/22 – highlights the almost total lack of visibility of games at a national level.
We’re still lacking huge amounts of valuable data – the number of students studying games across Scotland, the number of games-related startups founded annually, the number and type of games being released. etc. etc.
If the games sector is to achieve its full potential and be seen alongside the other key digital industries (data, cyber, fintech, etc.) having basic, robust data on the size, composition and output of the ecosystem is a fundamental building block.