10 facts about gaming in Sweden
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Loading... - Ashley Walsh
- 25 Jan 2023
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Mojang, King and DICE – all Swedish. Here’s the success of gaming in Sweden summed up.
1. One billion players
It is estimated that around one in four people in the world has played a game made by Swedes. No wonder then, that gaming in Sweden is booming. The growth in the Swedish games industry over the last decade has been substantial, to say the least.
In 2021, the total revenue for Swedish companies amounted to more than EUR 5.8 billion, according to the Swedish Game Developer Index. In the year 2011, that sum amounted to a 'mere' EUR 256 million.
And the games industry is bigger than the big names such as Mojang, King and DICE.
2. From subculture to success
In the very early days of video games, successful international companies mainly came from Japan, the US and the UK. Then, in Sweden and a handful other countries, a subculture emerged in the early 1980s called the Demo scene. People used early home computers such as the Commodore 64 and Amiga to show off their programming skills through audio and video shows.
One example is Digital Illusions, now DICE. It was started by four friends from the Demo scene in 1992, when they released cult hit Pinball Dreams followed by the hugely successful Battlefield franchise.
3. Minecraft madness
It's been estimated that around 130-140 million people play Minecraft every month. In this popular sandbox game, which is developed by Mojang Studios, players build 3D worlds with different types of blocks and then explore and craft items in their new world.
Minecraft was created by Markus ‘Notch’ Persson and started out as a hobby project. The game was released in an early version in 2009 and became an immediate hit in the gaming community. The rapid success led to the foundation of Mojang. In 2014, Persson sold his enormously successful gaming company to Microsoft for USD 2.5 billion. Read More…
