Sure, long and dark periods give the Swedes more time to nerd out on things — but the Swedish success story in games is more about industry-leading companies, world-hit games, and strong gaming culture. Here’s the Swedish games industry summed up.
1. The Swedish game industry in the world
When talking about Swedish cultural exports, music naturally comes to mind. However, these days Abba and Robyn have to make room on the cultural export podium for video games like Minecraft, Battlefield, and Valheim (just to name a few).
Since the early days of games, the global gaming scene has been dominated by Japanese and US companies, but Swedes (with their small country of 10 million people) surely make a name for themselves too.
The number of Swedish gaming companies doubled since 2014, and in 2021 the total revenue for Swedish companies was more than EUR 5.8 billion, according to the Swedish Game Developer Index.
Among international actors, creativity is mentioned as an important Swedish advantage. This is in addition to high-quality games, well-educated staff, and strong innovation. Swedish gaming companies have cross-functional teams, a flat management hierarchy, and a high level of creativity, which makes them uniquely attractive internationally.
Today it is estimated that around one in four people in the world has played a game made by Swedes, and Sweden is the home of big companies such as Mojang, King, Dice, Paradox, Avalanche, Ubisoft, and Embracer.
2. Extensive experience in computing and the internet
In just a few decades, the games industry in Sweden has evolved from a niche hobby to a global and highly valued industry. There are several reasons why and how Sweden claimed a spot among the leading countries in the gaming sphere.
Early access to PCs is one of them. In 1997 the home PC reform gave employees in Sweden the possibility to borrow or rent a PC, without paying taxes. Approximately 1 million Swedes accessed a PC via this reform.
In addition, the Swedes had early access to good-quality internet. With Sweden investing heavily in the Internet during the 1990s, it had the world’s best capacity in 1995 and still boasts one of the fastest networks in the world.
Topics that can and often are discussed surrounding the evolution of the Swedish Games Industry are the long and dark periods where going outside isn’t particularly enjoyable and indoor activities are preferred, as well as the lack of stigma around “nerdy” hobbies in Sweden.
3. The Swedish games culture
Besides game developers, the Swedish culture of games is a broad context of gamers, e-sport competitors, schools, LAN festivals, and influencers.
Sweden is the home of Dreamhack, the world’s largest LAN party, and the Youtuber PewDiePie with more than 100 million subscribers. The country has a long and rich history in esports when it comes to competitors, as well as fans, and hails internationally notable organizations like Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance, and GODSENT.
In addition, some of the highest-ranked schools in games and game development are to be found in Sweden. Among them are The Game Assembly and Futuregames.
Games in Sweden are no longer just an industry, but a central part of the culture. In most Swedish age categories more than 50% play some form of game and in the 18-30 age group, it’s over 70%. In contrast, games are still not stated in the Arts Council’s policy documents as an explicit cultural form, isn’t that odd.
4. The rising of Minecraft
We simply can’t make an article about the Swedish games industry without mentioning Minecraft. The most sold game of all time, with over 200 million sold copies and ~130 million monthly players.
Minecraft was initially released over 10 years ago, developed by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson who started it as a hobby project. He would later found Mojang and sell his enormously successful company to Microsoft for a hissing USD 2.5 billion.
Since then, Minecraft has even been taught in Swediishh school, where teachers explain that students “learn about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done and even how to plan for the future.” This rhymes well with Minecraft vision about implementing factors of learning into the game.
5. The startup-friendly Sweden
In a young industry like in games, startups play a huge role in innovation and growth. Sweden is a country blessed with business-friendly laws and regulations and is supposedly one of the most business-friendly countries in Europe. There are startup hubs and gaming clusters to help new companies kick-off. Only in 2021, 93 new gaming companies were started in Sweden.
In addition, Sweden is a leading actor in technological innovation with a strong commitment to digitization. The IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking ranks Sweden third in 2022, regarding capacity and readiness to adopt and explore digital technologies as a key driver for economic transformation in business, government, and wider society.
6. Global opportunities
As mentioned earlier, a vital factor behind the success of the Swedish games industry is a knowledgeable and innovative workforce. Although, Sweden is a small country and the industry is growing rapidly, which makes it difficult to focus on recruitment inside Swedish borders.
Many Swedish game companies are hiring talent abroad and the need for the right talent is massive. This offers a global window of opportunity for anyone who is interested in joining the Swedish games industry. Some have offices in other parts of the world, some hire remotely and some are focusing on relocating employees to their Swedish offices.
Whether you’re a senior developer, a junior artist, or looking to break into the industry, there might be an opening in the Swedish game world for you.
Sources:
Swedish Game Developer Index 2022
IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking
10 facts about gaming in Sweden
‘In Swedish: The Home PC reform
