As of February 2024, the 25 largest game development companies employed 7,663 specialists. In six months, their number decreased by 1,020 people (or 11.75%), and in a year – by 1,411 (almost 15%). GameDev DOU continues to analyze the Ukrainian game dev market and published a new top 25 companies operating in our country.
Thus, 14 companies on the list have reduced their staff. There are many reasons for the overall reduction: investor caution, company splits, slowdown in the IT market, etc.
Who was included in the rating
The rating is based on the total number of employees and the share of technical specialists in these companies. The ranking took into account specialists in Ukraine as well as those who moved abroad but continue to pay taxes in Ukraine.
The ranking includes both Ukrainian and international companies that have representative offices in our country and pay taxes here. The ranking serves as a reference only and helps to assess how the Ukrainian game development market is changing.
The list includes companies that develop their own products – mobile games, AA and AAA projects; outsourcing studios, game development startups of IT companies. Companies engaged in gambling, development of mobile casino applications, social casino games, etc. were not included. We also did not include companies with less than 75 employees.
Leaders of the rating
Not all of them grew, but they did – eleven teams grew larger over the past six months. In total, we are talking about almost 170 specialists. The creators of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. GSC Game World have the best results, with 40 employees.
The first place in the ranking is occupied by Playrix – the company employs 953 specialists, 75% of which are technical specialists. (The company owns several studios in Ukraine, but has Russian origin and still hires and relocates developers from the aggressor country)
Room 8 Group took the second place with 846 specialists, 79% of whom were technicians.
Ubisoft ranks third with 760 specialists, 93% of whom are technicians. It is worth noting that none of the three largest companies have seen any growth over the past six months.
The offices of the 25 largest game development companies are represented in 9 Ukrainian cities. The main city is Kyiv, where 17 companies are located. It is followed by Lviv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro.
Over the past six months, three of our top companies have expanded their geography. Thus, Kevuru Games opened its office in Warsaw (Poland), RetroStyle Games – in Kyiv, and N-iX Game & VR Studio – in Bucharest (Romania).
