GameDev DOU continues to analyze the Ukrainian market of computer game development and published a new top 25 largest companies operating in our country. The ranking is based on the total number of employees and the share of technical specialists. For this ranking, we counted game developers located in Ukraine, as well as those who moved abroad but continue to pay taxes to our country.
The top 25 includes both purely Ukrainian and international companies that have representative offices in Ukraine and pay taxes here. The ranking is for reference only and helps to assess how the Ukrainian game development market is changing.
The list includes game development companies that develop their own products – mobile games, AA and AAA projects, as well as outsourcing studios and game development startups of IT companies. The following companies were not included: gambling companies, mobile casino apps, social casino games, etc. We also did not include companies with less than 75 employees.
In total, the 25 largest game development companies employ 8,683 specialists. From February to August this year, their number decreased by 4.3% or 391 specialists. Most of the companies in the ranking (14) have negative dynamics. The reason for this is mostly attributed to the relocation of employees abroad and natural attrition.
Growth
However, over the past six months, 9 studios have shown growth, and what is noteworthy is that it was not just outsourcing. Four companies are engaged in outsourcing (iLogos Game Studios, Innovecs Games, Ulysses Graphics, Pingle Game Studio), and the rest are product companies (GSC Game World, Fractured Byte, Frogwares, QS Games, Frag Lab).
The top five of the top 25 have not changed:
- Playrix.
- Room 8 Group.
- Plarium.
- Ubisoft.
- Gameloft.
This time, however, 4A Games (20th place) returned to the ranking, having failed to provide data on the number of employees last time. Frogwares (24th place) also returned, with the number of employees increasing by 9 specialists. At the same time, Gunzilla Games left the ranking, as it did not provide data this time.
New offices
Over the past six months, companies have hardly opened any new offices. The only exceptions were Plarium’s office in Lviv, Frag Lab’s office, and the representative office of the outsourcing studio Kevuru Games in Poland.
Experts also asked companies about the number of their specialists in different regions of Ukraine. Some of them refused to provide data for security reasons, and among those who provided information, we managed to select five cities with the highest number of game developers.
The first place is occupied by Kyiv, where 2241 people work. In February, companies reported 2520 employees in the capital. Lviv is in second place. While in February, 819 specialists worked here, in August their number dropped to 497. The third place is occupied by Dnipro (147). Odesa offices employ 134 people. Kharkiv rounds out the top five with 91 people.
In parallel to GameDev, DOU interviewed companies and found out how many of their specialists are currently serving in the Armed Forces, whether they are paid compensation and to what extent. Just like the previous time, more than half of the companies have up to 10 specialists in the army. At the same time, eleven companies fully pay salaries to game developers who serve. Only one does not (last time there were two).
As for the companies’ expansion plans, more than half of them plan to increase their staff.
