Over the past decade, Cyprus has developed a video-game industry with global reach, yet its scale remains largely unknown at home. In 2025, companies based on the island generated more than €3.2 billion in gross revenue, according to the first national report to measure the sector.
The Cyprus Video Game Industry Report 2025, published by the Cyprus Game Makers Association (CYGMA), identifies 415 registered video-game companies and related entities on the island. Its data was reviewed by Alinea Analytics, with contributions from Xsolla, AppMagic, C Business Advisors, InvestGame, and GameDev Reports.
Follow THE FUTURE on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram
According to the report, Cyprus-based companies also released 571 new mobile titles in 2025, and those launches generated 615 million downloads. Additionally, AppMagic’s country ranking placed Cyprus third globally for mobile-game downloads, just behind big players China and Vietnam.
The figures cover video-game development and publishing. They exclude Cyprus’s separately regulated iGaming and gambling sector.
Almost nothing made or published from Cyprus depends on local consumers. The audiences are international from the very beginning, reflecting a profile closer to software than traditional entertainment.
This export-led model has already produced an industry far larger than its [in]visibility at home would suggest.
“This is not a future ambition. It is the reality of the industry that already exists here,” writes CYGMA General Manager Andrey Ivashentsev in the report.
Mobile Provided The Route To Scale
The global games market reached an estimated $263.7 billion in 2025, with mobile accounting for $160.6 billion, or 61%. Cyprus developed its games sector during the same period that smartphones and free-to-play titles were bringing games to a much larger global audience.
That is evident in the companies with active operations on the island. Around 82.7% develop for mobile, while 57.5% work exclusively on mobile titles. Only 30.1% develop across two or more platforms.
The sector is also dominated by smaller companies. Among companies for which headcount is publicly known, 72.6% employ fewer than 50 people. Only 4% have a global workforce of 500 or more.
The more interesting mobile stats derive from where the money came from. Of the approximately €1.8 billion in estimated mobile revenue for 2025, only around €66 million, or 4%, was attributed to titles released during the year. Games launched before 2025 generated the remaining €1.72 billion.
Therefore, the sector’s current revenue depends on both established intellectual property and live games that continue earning long after their initial release and younger studios developing their first titles.
This helps explain the difference between the island’s two global mobile rankings. Cyprus placed third for downloads and 11th for mobile in-app-purchase revenue. Its strength lies mostly in casual and hyper-casual games capable of reaching very large audiences, although they tend to earn less from each download than titles produced in markets such as Japan or South Korea.
PC and console games form a second, which is a commercially different part of the industry. Cyprus-based companies released 36 new titles in 2025 and sold around 1.5 million copies. CYGMA estimates the segment’s total annual revenue at approximately €1.4 billion.
Around €200 million was tracked through Steam. The remainder is a CYGMA aggregate estimate based largely on company submissions covering console stores, live-service titles and direct sales that are not visible through Steam data.
Growth Accelerated After 2019
The report traces the industry’s fastest expansion to the five years between 2019 and 2024.
The number of registered game companies increased from 169 to 393, a growth of 133%. Employment in game publishing also rose, from 1,438 to 4,320 people, which is an increase of around 200%.
Turnover grew from €1.26 billion in 2019 to €4.35 billion in 2024. The sector’s estimated contribution to Cyprus’s GDP increased from around €300 million to €1.15 billion over the same period, increasing its share of national GDP from 1.3% to 3.3%.
According to CYGMA, these 2025 results place Cyprus among Europe’s ten largest video-game countries by revenue. The report also ranks the island first globally per capita for registered games companies, games revenue and mobile downloads.
Capital Is Flowing In Both Directions
Between 2020 and 2025, the Cyprus games industry recorded €2.76 billion in publicly disclosed mergers and acquisitions across 21 exits, comprising 20 acquisitions and one initial public offering.
Companies also raised €137 million across 72 disclosed funding rounds. Pre-seed and seed investments accounted for 40 of those rounds.
Only three Series B or later rounds were recorded during the six years. This could be for several reasons, such as companies reaching maturity and often pursuing an acquisition, while large publicly disclosed growth rounds remain rare.
The largest transaction was Miniclip’s €1.06 billion acquisition of Easybrain in 2025.
Other major deals included the €568 million MY.GAMES transaction in 2022 and Moon Active’s €265 million acquisition of Melsoft in 2020.
It’s not a one-way street, however. Capital also moves outwards from Cyprus. Companies headquartered on the island, including GDEV and MY.GAMES, have acquired other studios, several of them also based in Cyprus.
The published totals cover disclosed transactions only. Private deals are excluded from the count, as are seven transactions announced during the first half of 2026. CYGMA says those will be aggregated in its next annual report.
A newer form of finance has also emerged. Five Cyprus gaming companies secured €128.3 million in disclosed user-acquisition financing facilities during 2025.
This form of non-dilutive finance allows studios with established games to borrow against expected revenue. They can then spend the funds on attracting more players without surrendering equity.
Two Tax Instruments Support Established Studios
The report identifies two corporate tax instruments available to qualifying games companies.
The first is Cyprus’s IP Box regime. It permits an 80% deduction on qualifying profits generated from eligible intellectual property developed by the Cyprus company or if it engages with unrelated third-party outsourcers. Holding the rights but without genuine development activity does not qualify for this tax deduction.
Following the increase in corporate tax to 15% in 2026, the effective tax rate on qualifying IP income is approximately 3%.
The second instrument is the R&D super-deduction. A qualifying company can deduct 120% of eligible research and development expenditure from taxable profit. The report states that the measure is available until at least 2030.
The two instruments are not permitted to be applied to the same expenditure during the same year. A studio may use the R&D deduction while developing a game and later use the IP Box after the title begins generating qualifying profit.
Cyprus also offers personal-tax provisions intended to attract international founders and specialist employees. These include a 50% income-tax exemption for 17 years for qualifying people entering their first employment in Cyprus and earning more than €55,000 a year.
Eligible non-domiciled tax residents may also receive a 17-year exemption from Special Defence Contribution on dividend and interest income.
This addition is useful to companies already spending heavily on development or earning from established games. Younger studios face a more difficult position.
One source of public funding available is run by the Research and Innovation Foundation programmes (RIF). They accept applications from gaming companies, including SEED grants of up to €500,000 and INNOVATE grants of up to €1 million. However, these are often general innovation schemes rather than games-specific support.
CYGMA identifies dedicated early-stage funding as one of the sector’s main limitations for growth. The planned Plug and Play accelerator is expected to become Cyprus’s first gaming-specific instrument in 2026. The report argues that the island continues to trail jurisdictions such as Germany and the UK in dedicated grant infrastructure.
A Narrow Route Into The Industry
Cyprus has 13 universities and recorded 57,889 tertiary students in the 2023/24 academic year. The report estimates that between 1,680 and 2,130 students are enrolled in degrees relevant to the games industry.
An estimated 290 to 385 students will graduate from those programmes in 2026. Only three to six are expected to graduate from a dedicated game-development pathway.
Once competition from fintech, general IT employers, remote work and emigration is considered, CYGMA estimates that local studios can realistically recruit between 10 and 40 game-relevant graduates from Cypriot universities each year.
The report also predicts potential demand for 100 to 300 junior hires annually. These figures are estimates and do not represent confirmed vacancies or recruitment intentions.
The supply question will become more pressing for some companies from 2027. Under the Business Facilitation Unit framework mentioned by the report, qualifying companies of foreign interest commit to having Cypriot or EU nationals account for at least 30% of their workforce within five years.
Compliance for the first cohort is due to be assessed after 2 January 2027. Companies that fall short will be assessed individually by the authorities.
Cyprus has already attracted a games industry with substantial revenue and global audiences. Its next challenge concerns how much of the expertise required to sustain that activity can be developed on the island.
The business network is already unusually concentrated. Cyprus hosts five major game-development conferences and more than 25 industry events annually. Around 59% of attendees at its principal conferences are founders or C-level executives, according to organisers’ data compiled by CYGMA.
That concentration gives the sector direct access to investors, publishers and the platforms capable of opening new markets. The report’s employment and education figures show why its future will also depend on people entering the industry much earlier in their careers.
