In six months, the number of employees in the Ukrainian gaming industry decreased by 1020, or 11.75%. Over the year, it decreased by 1411 (almost 15%).
At the same time, only one new office was opened — in Kyiv.
This is stated in the rating, published DOU.
A wave of layoffs
The number of employees in the Ukrainian top 25 gaming companies is decreasing. Speaking specifically about technical specialists, it is minus 590 for six months and 944 specialists for the year.
However, their share has increased over the past six months. In the winter of 2023, they accounted for 81.4% of all employees, in August last year — almost 81%, and as of February 2024 — 84%.
There are many reasons for the overall decline: investor caution, company splits, a slowdown in the IT services market, etc. For example, a decrease in the number of specialistsRoom 8 Groupin Ukraine, the company attributes it to the legalization of relocated specialists abroad and the dismissal of a certain number of people who were on bench.
«There have also been natural changes as some specialists have decided to continue their careers outside the company. However, new colleagues from Ukraine have joined our team. Currently, we have open positions for both Ukrainian specialists and specialists from other countries where we operate,», — Room 8 Group explained to us.
In an outsourcing companyKevuru Gamesalso cite several reasons:
- legalization of people abroad;
- a global slowdown in the IT services market, including gaming;
- clients (new and existing) are slower and more cautious about investing in new projects in Ukraine.
The top 5 lost 550 people
Not all of them grew, but it was still there: eleven teams grew larger over the past six months. In total, we are talking about almost 170 specialists. These are seven product teams, three outsourcing teams, and a studioRetroStyle Games(deals with both areas).
The best performance inGSC Game World— plus forty employees. Over the past year, the creators of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have increased their staff by 70 people. Interestingly, the percentage of technical specialists in the studio has not changed and is 80%. Among the ten largest companies, only two grew: Wargaming (+14) and N-iX (+5).
The one that fell the most noticeablyPlayrix. The group of six studios has shrunk by 318 specialists in total. Last August, 66% of technical specialists were employed here, and now it is —75%. Playrix did not respond to our inquiries about the reasons for the reduction.
- For example, Kevuru Games opened its center in Warsaw, Poland, and RetroStyle Games — in Kyiv,
- N-iX Game & VR Studio — in Bucharest, Romania.
Last time, two companies announced the opening of new offices: Plarium in Lviv and Frag Lab in Poland.
Almost half of companies plan to grow
Despite the difficult situation on the game development market, companies do not abandon their growth plans. Ten of them are planning to increase staff in the next six months, and one of them is going to hire 50-100 employees.
It is noteworthy thatNone of the studios is planning to lay off or relocate staff from Ukraine.