The main source of income, and the largest, for Serbian game developers is mobile, with the 15 largest companies in the market having €150m of revenue and 10% growth year-on-year.
That’s according to the latest report by the Serbian Gaming Association, covering all the key stats for the burgeoning Serbian gaming market.
Compared to 45% of studios’ main income being mobile, 36% were PC and Mac, while only 5% were made for consoles. The top three markets for Serbian developers were the US, UK and Germany, with 90% of the respondents generating between 75-100% of their revenue outside their home country. Additionally over 30% of the industry features women in active roles, while about 50% of lead positions are held by women.
Notably, despite difficulties with a variety of factors including high taxes and hiring problems, 2022 was the first time that the number of games being published in Serbia rose instead of fell since 2018. In terms of problems to tackle and the solutions, the report indicates many developers want to see greater state support and international promotion to raise awareness of Serbia and its gaming scene internationally.
Serbia is decidedly mobile
It’s unsurprising that mobile and PC games mark the most common means of income for studios. Both are easily monetised through new and traditional methods, with a variety of means of distribution and development that makes them appealing to studios that are unable to publish on console due to cost or other difficulties.
However, while there is a sunnier outlook for Serbia, it still shares many of the disadvantages seen by gaming industries the world over. Lack of state support and international promotion means that a potentially lucrative sector remains severely underutilised, and hiring difficulties – potentially due to developers looking for roles internationally – means that local studios find it difficult to fill key roles.
With $165m of revenue annually, and over 140 teams and companies, the Serbian game industry is nothing to be sniffed at. With mobile driving it, as with Türkiye it may be only a matter of time before it starts attracting more of the attention from investors and players alike.