The inaugural Cyprus Video Game Industry Report shows the island ranks first in the world per capita for game companies, revenue and installs, and third globally for mobile downloads, ahead of the US.
CYGMA, the Cyprus Game Makers Association, has published the Cyprus Video Game Industry Report 2025 — the inaugural edition and the first measured account of an industry that had never been counted.
The headline finding is a ratio. An island of about one million people is home to 415 game companies, which earned over €3.2 billion from games in 2025 and rank third in the world by mobile game downloads — behind only China and Vietnam, and ahead of the United States. Per head of population, Cyprus has more game companies, generates more game revenue, and produces more mobile game installs than any other country.
“By all three measures, Cyprus is the most efficient video game development country in the world today,” writes Andrey Ivashentsev, General Manager of CYGMA, in the report’s foreword. “This is not a future ambition. It is the reality of the industry that already exists here.”
The density is not marginal. Cyprus has 415 game companies per million people, compared with Finland’s 48, Spain’s 17, and Serbia’s 15—roughly eight times denser than the next-densest market. On games revenue per head, the figure is approximately €3,200, compared with €509 in Finland, €51 in Spain, and €32 in Serbia. In absolute terms, the report puts Cyprus among the ten largest games-industry countries in Europe by revenue.
An industry that grew without being recorded
The second story in the report is why none of this was previously visible. Between 2019 and 2024 the number of game companies registered in Cyprus grew from 169 to 393, up 133% — roughly 18% a year, against about 4% a year across the wider European industry. Employment grew faster still, tripling from 1,438 to 4,320 people. Turnover rose from €1.26 billion to €4.35 billion, and the sector’s contribution to national GDP went from 1.3% to 3.3% — €1.15 billion in value added.
Almost none of it reached the datasets that governments, investors and universities rely on. Until December 2025, Cyprus was the last country in the European Union without a national trade association for its games industry.
The report traces the starting point to a single policy moment. “Before 2012, Cyprus was known abroad for three things: shipping, financial services, and tourism,” writes George Mountis, Co-managing Partner at Chrysostomides Advocates and Legal Consultants, opening the section on the economic environment. The IP Box regime introduced that year arrived just as the global mobile boom was deciding where to incorporate its studios. “Today, Cyprus is increasingly recognized as a base for international games companies and development activity. That did not happen by accident.”
What the report covers
The report runs to 72 pages across nine sections:
- The Global Games Market in 2025 — $263.7 billion in worldwide games revenue, larger than on-demand TV, film, and recorded music combined, and the forces reshaping it
- Cyprus Video Game Market — €3.2 billion in 2025 revenue, split between mobile (571 new titles, 615 million downloads, ~€1.8 billion) and PC/console (36 new titles, ~€1.4 billion), plus the per-capita comparisons and the world rankings
- Companies and Employment Figures — 82.7% of companies build for mobile and 57.5% for mobile only; 72.6% run teams under fifty people; twelve company profiles
- Investments, Mergers, and Acquisitions — €2.76 billion in disclosed M&A and 21 exits since 2020, €137.0 million raised across 72 rounds, and €128.3 million of user-acquisition financing committed in 2025 alone
- Economic Environment — the IP Box at an effective ~3% since the corporate rate rose to 15% in January 2026, the 120% R&D super-deduction, and how Cyprus compares with the UK, Germany, Turkey and Abu Dhabi
- Talent Pipeline and Education — a funnel from 57,889 students to the 10–40 graduates local studios can realistically hire each year
- Community and Events — five major conferences and 25+ events a year, drawing 2,000+ to the majors and 10,000+ across the wider ecosystem
- About CYGMA — the association, its members, partners and committees
- Methodology — every source, what it covers, and what the estimates can and cannot establish
Contributors
The report opens with a foreword from Nicodemos Damianou, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, written during Cyprus’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. “A prominent game development community is fast growing,” he writes, “formed by both global technology firms and locally scaling startups.”
Several further contributions run through the report:
- Kirill Vaganov, Head of Sales SMB at AppMagic: “Cyprus demonstrates how a small ecosystem can have a global impact… reaching global audiences far beyond what its population size would suggest.”
- Matias Myllyrinne, formerly CEO of Remedy Entertainment and head of development at Wargaming, on what a games cluster does for a small economy: “Cyprus has assembled its cluster in a fraction of the time it took most of Europe. The opportunity now is to build the depth underneath it — together.”
- Theodoros Loukaidis, Director General of the Research & Innovation Foundation, closing the capital section: “Cyprus is no longer simply building gaming companies. It is building a gaming ecosystem with increasing depth, maturity and global relevance.”
Data and method
The report’s data, methodology and conclusions were reviewed by Alinea Analytics, one of the global leaders in PC and Console games market analytics. “Sound research isn’t about producing the biggest number and overly optimistic growth shares,” writes Rhys Elliott, the company’s Head of Market Analysis. “It’s about producing something realistic and defensible.”
The report is direct about its limits: the figures are informed estimates built on open data, not audited results. Because sales through studios’ own webshops leave no comparable public footprint, the totals are more likely to be understated than overstated.
One point of definition, stated plainly in the report: this covers video game development only. Cyprus’s iGaming sector is large, separately regulated, and excluded from every figure.
Availability
The Cyprus Video Game Industry Report 2025 is available now in English as a free download.
Printed copies will be available at gamescom 2026 (24–30 August, Cologne) at the CYGMA stand B-03 in the Confex area during gamescom dev on 24–25 August, and at the Games from Cyprus pavilion, Hall 03.2, Stand F-030G, where ten Cyprus studios exhibit together for the first time from 26–28 August.
CYGMA — the Cyprus Game Makers Association — unites game development companies operating in Cyprus. It exists to make a substantial but long-unmeasured industry visible: collecting reliable data, supporting local talent, representing the sector in policy at home and at EU level, and connecting Cyprus-based companies with partners across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and beyond.