03 The games industry in Germany Last year was a challenging one for the German games industry. The back and forth around games funding and, as a result, Germany’s compromised international competitiveness collided with the weakened yet ongoing consolidation wave that has swept the global games sector. Accordingly, German games companies were cautious heading into 2025: only 17 per cent of them anticipated positive economic development for the industry as a whole this year. While this figure was slightly more positive than that recorded for 2024 (12 per cent), it remains far below the 48 per cent registered two years ago. When asked to assess their own business prospects for 2025, however, companies were markedly more optimistic. More than half, 52 per cent, expected a positive or even strongly positive development in their business operations this year – two percentage points higher than one year ago. Only 15 per cent anticipated a negative development, as compared to 19 per cent in 2024. Only 17 percent of games companies in Germany expect positive economic development for the entire industry in 2025. Despite the generally cautious outlook on the development of the industry, a clearly positive tendency can be seen in companies’ expectations for their own business development. This is supported by sales trends worldwide. Market researchers at Newzoo, for example, anticipate approximately 3.4 per cent growth in the global games market in 2025, to around 189 billion US dollars1. [1] Global games market report & forecast Q2 2025 update (newzoo.com).
