Natascha Rommens 
26/09/2023
The upward trend we’ve been seeing in the market data of our beloved #belgiangamesindustry is steady. The Belgian game sector in 2022 shows solid growth, both in terms of number of companies and jobs. The forecast for the videogame sector is positive. Grab the main takeaways of the survey below or download the full report right here.
With an increase of 21%, the Belgian game sector grouped 133 companies in 2022 and has never been bigger. These companies accounted for a turnover of €85 million and employed 1085 people, which is 16% more than in 2021. The slight drop in turnover from €88 million in 2021 to €85 million in 2022 is still a corona residue as some development pipelines experienced delays. However, as we look at the pre-corona figures (€70 million in 2019), there is not much to be worried about. Moreover, both the increase in number of companies and the hiring figures show that a lot of new videogame releases are coming, which should ultimately result in turnover growth.
- Compared to 2021, overall turnover went down 3% to €85 million but grew 21% compared to pre corona year 2019
- FTE count growing 16% to 1085 up from 935 in 2021
- East Flanders remains province with most game companies
- XR, browser and mobile platforms are less used by our studios, while console and streaming grow their share
- Switch is most popular console platform, followed by PlayStation and in third spot Xbox Series S/X
- Entertainment games remain by far the largest category of developed games in Belgium
In terms of geographical spread, both Wallonia and Brussels count more companies than last year. However, the majority of Belgian videogame companies is still based in Flanders (67%).
Due to a huge influx of new companies, the number of companies older than 5 years drops from 56% in 2021 to 47% in 2022. In Flanders 46% of game companies are older than 5y, which is significantly higher than the Belgian 27% and an indication of a more mature ecosystem in Flanders.
Only 13 out of the 133 companies can be considered small, midsized or large which goes to show that our industry is still fragile, especially when you contemplate that 90% of our companies consist of max 10 people. The number of solo companies grew remarkably compared to 2021 which proves Belgium has a fertile breeding ground for startup videogame companies.
Let’s see where this takes us in a few years 🙂
Hungry for more insights? Download the full report right here
