The number of companies creating and publishing games in Germany shot up 15.5 per cent year-on-year.

That's according to the country's industry trade body, Game, which reports that there are 908 firms in the region that "develop and market" video games. This is a 46 per cent increase since 2020.

411 – 45 per cent – of these companies are both developers and publishers, while 450 – 49.5 per cent – are solely involved in development. In addition to that side of things, 47 per cent of companies in the country are involving in the marketing of video games.

11,992 people work in development or publishing in the German games industry, a 6.7 per cent increase year-on-year and a 19 per cent increase on 2020 figures.

"The federal government’s funding of games is proving effective," Game MD Felix Falk said.

"It is now in the hands of the coalition government as to whether Germany can continue to catch up with the top games locations around the world. Games funding cannot currently be relied upon. This is a major disadvantage when compared internationally and stands in the way of Germany’s continued success as a games location. But the ongoing wave of game company start-ups shows the huge potential that Germany has and proves that putting better parameters in place was precisely the right step to take to tap this potential.

The federal government and the German Bundestag must now reverse the recent games funding cuts and increase the funding to €125 million to further facilitate the positive growth. In particular considering that every euro of funding generates a great deal of additional tax revenue and investments. In the medium term, we also need the kind of games funding based on tax incentives that has been a long-established and reliable standard in successful game locations such as Canada and France. This strong upswing will otherwise be in jeopardy and Germany will not be able to keep pace with its international competitors with its games and game technologies."