As the global video games industry grows in scale, sophistication, and economic importance, Ireland has an opportunity to strengthen its position as a high‑value European hub for game development, gametech, publishing and live operations.
Building on established strengths across technology and creative industries, Ireland can capture a greater share of global growth, provided key constraints around talent, scale, finance, and visibility are addressed through a coordinated national approach.
The global video games market is entering a new phase of maturity. Value is increasingly generated beyond launch, with live operations, post‑release monetisation, and platform services becoming central to returns.
At the same time, development costs are rising, studio consolidation is accelerating and governments are competing aggressively to attract and retain high value activity.
Ireland’s digital games sector is small by global standards but strategically positioned. The sector directly employs 2,400 FTEs and generated over €570m in turnover in 2024, with development, gametech and publishing as the largest sub‑sectors.
Ireland’s wider digital creative economy and technology base amplify this footprint, providing skills, infrastructure and spill‑over benefits across animation, film, cloud, AI and data services.
Ireland’s opportunity is not to replicate the scale of the largest gaming hubs, but to specialise: focusing on high value, export-oriented activities where Ireland has comparative advantages while enabling indigenous studios to scale and attract sustained foreign direct investment (FDI).
Graph 1: Video game market revenue worldwide by segment (USD bn)
Graph 2: Growth indicators
The Irish games sector is best understood as an integrated value chain spanning the full lifecycle of digital game creation, distribution and monetisation.
Firms in Ireland participate across multiple stages from early development and enabling technologies through to publishing, live operations and player engagement.
This reflects the industry’s shift toward long‑lifecycle, service‑led business models.
1. Game development
2. Gametech
3. QA, testing & localisation
4. Publishing
5. Distribution & promotion
6. Post-launch operations
7. Monetisation
8. Player engagement
Illustrative, not exhaustive; several companies operate across multiple stages of the value chain.
Video games have become one of the world’s largest entertainment industries, surpassing film and music combined. Growth is being driven less by unit sales and more by longevity and recurring revenue.
These trends favour locations such as Ireland, which can combine technical capability, creative talent, regulatory stability and access to international markets.
Ireland’s established role as a European technology hub underpins the gaming sector. Global leaders in cloud computing, software, AI and digital platforms provide infrastructure that is increasingly critical to modern games, particularly for live operations, multiplayer services and data‑driven monetisation.
This enables Ireland to compete for post‑launch operations, live services and gametech, segments characterised by stable employment, recurring revenue and long project lifecycles.
Ireland’s award‑winning animation, film and digital creative sectors provide adjacent skills in storytelling, visual design, audio and production management.
Cross‑pollination between games, animation and film supports higher‑quality IP development and reduces talent risk, particularly for smaller studios.
Lighthouse Studios, a Kilkenny-based studio, has grown into a significant international production partner, delivering animation for globally recognised titles including Rick and Morty, The Cuphead Show! and The Bob’s Burgers Movie, while supporting a substantial cluster of specialist animation employment in the south-east.
Ireland has a decades‑long track record of attracting and retaining multinational investment in high‑value digital activities. Existing gaming‑related FDI spans publishing, localisation, QA, gametech and live services, providing anchors around which the ecosystem can deepen.
Recent extensions to the Digital Games Tax Credit and Ireland’s broader R&D incentive framework strengthen the country’s competitiveness, particularly for content‑rich and technically complex production.
Ireland is best positioned to focus growth in four mutually reinforcing areas:
Ireland’s next phase of growth in digital games will depend on moving from a collection of capable firms to a cohesive national ecosystem. This requires:
With focused execution, Ireland can establish itself not as a large‑scale games producer, but as a high‑value, resilient and globally connected gaming hub—capable of sustaining indigenous growth, attracting differentiated FDI and capturing the next decade of digital entertainment opportunity.
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