Since 2019, the Croatian video game industry has grown to post a consolidated profit of 90.5 million kuna (€12 million) in 2021, an industry group said on Tuesday, adding that the share of exports in revenues is currently around 80 percent, or double compared to the entire IT industry.

The report looking into the local video game industry from 2019 to 2021 was presented on Tuesday at a conference organized by the A1 Croatia telecom. The head of the video game trade group, Aleksandar Gavrilovic, said that the data was taken from analyzing 66 companies in Croatia which develop video games which account for nearly 500 jobs.

The total profits posted by these businesses in 2021 was “over 90.5 million kuna” (€12 million), whereas in 2019, it was “a little less than 34 million kuna” (€4.5 million). In 2021, their total revenues reached almost 486 million kuna (€64.5 million), in contrast to 2019, when they were 281.4 million kuna (€37.4 million).

Gavrilovic explained that, unlike many other sectors, gaming has only recently begun to be taken more seriously as an industry.

The Zagreb-based Nanobit, which specializes in mobile games, posted the bulk of this revenue, at 301 million kuna (€40 million), followed by a company called Abest with 54.2 million kuna (€7.2 million) in revenue, and Gamepires, a developer of PC games, with 27.3 million kuna (€3.6 million) in revenues.

A survey showed that the majority of employees are men, and 78 percent of all employees are employed on permanent contracts, which, according to Gavrilovic, is a “rarity in Croatia.” About 60 percent of people working in this industry in Croatia are aged 26-35, and only 2.5 percent are foreign nationals.

Around two in three of these companies work on developing their own games, and many of these use Croatian in-game locations such as Sibenik, Vucedol, Gorski Kotar, Dubrovnik, Zumberak and others.

Based on the analysis, an executive at Nanobit, Ivan Murat, said that the great strength of the gaming industry makes it one of the drivers of economic development in Croatia. “However,” he added, “for it to be even stronger, specific prerequisites are needed. These include more investment in education, to introduce something related to gaming in education, as well as cutting red tape.”

(€1 = 7.53 kuna)