10 Most Experienced Localization Companies in 2025

In the near future the gaming market will exceed USD 360 billion, and quality localization is key to global success. We’ve compiled the top 10 companies based on revenue, portfolio (MobyGames/ProZ), and reputation to help you navigate the market more easily.

The Gaming Outsourcing Market in 2025

How large is the game localization market?

There are relatively few public rankings focused specifically on game localization providers, and most broader language-service rankings do not isolate game localization as a separate category. After the purchase of Keywords by the investment fund EQT Group in 2024, we completely lost any assessment of the gaming outsourcing market. Therefore, we decided to conduct an analysis of the gaming outsourcing market from 2023 to 2025 and build a forecast for 2026.

We used publicly available industry reports and internal modeling to estimate the market structure. AI tools were used only to support data organization and drafting, not as a primary data source.

First, a bit of introductory data – the volume of gaming outsourcing historically amounted to 5-10% of the gaming market volume. The last available assessment to us – in 2023, Keywords estimated the market at 13 billion US dollars and forecasted annual growth of more than 9%. At the same time, according to Keywords, the volume of content outsourced will grow against in-house development (from 34% in 2023 to 37% in 2028).

But in 2022, we got ChatGPT, the AI boom began, and the gaming outsourcing market started experiencing so-called AI price erosion. In practice, this means a decrease in the average price per unit of service due to the substitution of part of human work with AI-performed work, or simply due to price reduction. After 2023, one can speak of the growth of the gaming outsourcing market no more than 4-5% per year. At the same time, the segments most resistant to AI pressure turned out to be game development and testing.

Since the IPO and the publication of the first reports for investors in 2013, the basis of Keywords’ revenue was localization, but in 2021 the situation changed and Keywords changed the breakdown by services. In addition, based on available data, the text localization segment at Keywords almost stopped growing, so they merged it into Globalize, adding testing and voice-over. In addition, Keywords considered gaming outsourcing in a broad sense, adding all possible services, including audio production, data analysis, etc.

To build our analysis, we restored the breakdown by types of services, extrapolating segments from old periods to new ones, took into account the slowdown in localization growth, limitedly included all audio outsourcing (counted only dubbing/localization) and did not include related services (data, tools, embedded teams, etc.), which is why the size of the gaming outsourcing market in our interpretation decreased to 9.14 billion USD in 2023. We also separately showed the impact of AI on service prices.

In addition to Keywords’ reports, we analyzed reports at XDS, GDC, reports on the use of AI in software and game development by leading analytical companies, reports of the overseas segment of the holding company Pole to Win, and industry report data from Newzoo, Nimdzi, and Slator.

Despite the fact that AI is taking on more and more tasks, it simultaneously facilitates the development of new games, so we believe that the outsourcing market will grow. There will be more games made, and development will cost less and less, but truly noticeable, interesting games in quantitative terms will not increase, and in percentage terms will even decrease. At the same time, according to the latest Nimdzi report data for 2026, Keywords’ revenue decreased, while Side’s grew, that is, within the gaming outsourcing segment, revenue between companies can also be redistributed. In our model, AI price erosion will lead to the fact that the average cost per unit of work will fall and the increase in work volume will not be able to compensate for this fall in all segments.

Estimated Game Outsourcing Market by Segment, USD Million

Gaming Localizers Ranking

There are different approaches to forming company rankings. The most ordinary and well-known ones are by revenue volume, such as, any Forbes company ranking. Such rankings usually appeal to large companies because they are at the top, and do not appeal to small ones because they end up, at best, at the end of the list.

In fact, company rankings can be built using different methodologies, and we came up with the idea to build a ranking of localizers by their experience in the gaming field. Projects for translating medical documentation, reference information for software, and game localization differ quite significantly from each other, both in terms of direct translators who can translate texts of one type and cannot translate others, and in terms of the set of languages and even the organization of the process. So comparing the revenue of a multi-profile translation company and a specialized game localization boutique will not help you understand who is better to entrust the localization of your game. At the same time, companies with extensive game localization experience are often better equipped to handle complex projects, as they have typically implemented process improvements based on lessons learned from previous releases and understand the workflows, risks, and requirements involved in bringing games to global markets.

10 Most Experienced Game Localizers

The standard set of services provided by localizers usually includes text localization, voice-over, and localization testing. For our ranking, we looked exclusively at data on text localization. In this case, we are talking about a market volume of 246 million dollars in 2025 and experiencing maximum AI pressure – in our model, it will shrink for two years in a row to 243 million dollars in 2026.

Game Localizers Ranking Table

Companies with a significant portion of revenue (more than 50%) not related to the gaming industry are marked in red.

To build our localizers’ experience ranking, we used data from MobyGames – this is a games encyclopedia filled by authoritative and experienced volunteers. In the initial sample, we included all service companies that have a “Localized by” page, internal localization studios of game publishers were excluded from the sample. For groups of companies, we used the name of the parent organization, exported the names of games localized by subsidiary studios, then removed duplicates and counted unique entries. The accounted subsidiary companies are indicated in the notes. DLC were counted as separate titles only if the company did not handle the localization of the main game. If several companies participated in the localization of the same project (for example, for a limited number of languages), the project was counted in the portfolio of several companies.

When building the ranking, we did not take into account the multilingualism of companies. There are companies that usually handle one or several languages in one game title (Effective Media, Logrus), and there are predominantly multilingual ones (Keywords, Allcorrect, Roboto).

In the final list, we sorted the companies by the number of localized games (high to low) and did not include companies with the number of localized projects less than 10. We also excluded inactive companies and companies not mentioned in new game titles after 2021. We did not take into account how many languages a given company localized the game into.

Reputation on Talent Market

We provide the company’s current rating on ProZ Blue Board (where available) and the number of recent scorings by external linguists. Most game translators are freelancers, and ProZ is one of the oldest and most widely used platforms for freelance translators. Companies post translation jobs and rate the result of translators’ work, while the linguists rate their clients on the searchable database. There’s a degree of objectivity, since the scorings are non-anonymous, and clients have the right to publicly respond. Thus, a low ProZ Blue Board rating may signal cashflow and payments issues, poor communications and project management, or compromised business ethics, which would result in higher linguist turnover and less predictable localization quality. If several companies were listed on a company’s ProZ page, we summed the number of reviews for all companies within the group (Side/Pole To Win, LocalizeDirect). For the TransPerfect group of companies, we calculated the rating and number of reviews using data from TransPerfect Translations Inc.; International Software Products B.V. (ISP), a TransPerfect company; Overtaal BV, a TransPerfect company; Hiventy, a TransPerfect company; Translations.com / TransPerfect Barcelona; and MoGi Group / MO Group International / Mogi. Separately, it should be noted that Native Prime, Quantic Lab, and Level Up Translation do not have any posted jobs on ProZ, unlike all the other companies, but they do have reviews.

We also added a conditional market activity parameter – how many games on average the company localizes per year based on 2023-2025 data. It seems to us that based on the totality of these parameters, one can assess the company’s experience in game localization, its activity over the last three years, and attitude towards translators, and therefore the quality of localization, albeit indirectly.

Keywords data were accounted for by summing unique entries of following companies: Keywords International Ltd, Keywords International Corporation Inc., Keywords International Co., Ltd., Keywords Pls, Keywords Studios QC-Interactive Inc., Keywords Montreal, Keywords Studios Los Angeles, Keywords Studios Spain SLU, Keywords Studios Spain, Keywords Studios Italy S.R.L., Keywords do Brasil Localização Ltda, Keywords Studios France SAS, Keywords Studios Germany GmbH, Keywords Studios Tokyo, Keywords Studios India Pvt. Ltd., Keywords Studios Singapore, Keywords International Pte. Ltd., Keywords Studios México, S. de R.L. de C.V., as well as Synthesis International s.r.l., Synthesis Global Solutions SA, Synthesis Mexico, Synthesis Iberia SL, Synthesis France, Synthesis Russia, Synthesis Brasil, Jinglebell Communication, Babel Media, Binari Sonori America Inc., Binari Sonori Asia KK, Sonox Audio Solutions, SL, La Marque Rose SARL, Around the Word SAS, VMC Game Labs, and Liquid Violet Ltd.

Side data were accounted for by summing unique entries of companies: Side International Holdings Limited, Side (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Side (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Taiwan Branch, Side Inc., Side UK Ltd., Side International UK Ltd., SIDE Paris, SIDE Montréal, Side Canada Inc., Side International Japan Co., Ltd., Side Japan Co., Ltd., Side Korea Co., Ltd., Side Shanghai Co., Ltd., PTW Inc., PTW Shanghai Co. Ltd., Pole To Win Europe Glasgow, Ltd., and entalize Co.

Lionbridge data were accounted for by summing unique entries of companies: Lionbridge Technologies, Inc., Lionbridge Studios Paris, Lionbridge Poland Sp. z o.o., Lionbridge Japan K.K., Lionbridge Espana SL, Lionbridge (UK) Limited, Lionbridge São Paulo, and Lionbridge Games Canada LLC.

Testronic data were accounted for by summing unique entries of companies: Testronic Laboratories Ltd., Testronic Sp. z o.o., and Testronic Labs.

Pink Noise data were accounted for by summing unique entries of companies: Pink Noise México, Pink Noise SL, and Pink Noise France.

Altagram Group data were accounted for together with Altagram GMBH.

TransPerfect data summed with Mogi Group data (TransPerfect acquired Mogi company in 2019).

All data is up to date as of April 1, 2026. If you notice an error or inaccuracy, write to pr@allcorrectgames.com and we will try to correct it.

Game Localization Competitive Positioning Matrix

Company lifespan does not determine its current activity in the localization market. New studios can quickly capture a significant share of projects.

The X-axis shows the year of the company’s first mention on MobyGames. The Y-axis shows the average number of localized projects per year (2023–2025). Circle size: total number of localized projects.

Industry leaders – companies with extensive experience and high current activity:

• Keywords
• Allcorrect
• Side
• Lionbridge
• Roboto Global

Strong production teams with good activity but less localization experience:

• QLOC
• Native Prime
• LocalizeDirect

Experienced but less active companies:

• Effective Media
• Logrus

Young companies active in the market and quickly gaining experience:

• Riotloc
• The Most Games
• Level Up

We built a map of competitive positions of localization companies, where the x-axis shows the total number of localized projects, the y-axis shows the average projects per year (2023–2025), and the chart is divided into 4 quadrants by median values (X—median of total projects, Y—median of activity).

There are 5 market leaders that combine extensive experience with high activity:

• Keywords
• Allcorrect
• Side
• Lionbridge
• Roboto Global

Translator Assessment of Companies

The largest localization companies don’t always have the highest translator ratings.

Company scale doesn’t always correlate with reputation among translators. Large companies may have lower ratings due to:

• Complex processes,
• Late payments,
• Large number of freelancers.

The x-axis shows the total number of localized projects. The y-axis shows the company rating by translators on ProZ platform.

Leaders in experience and good reputation:

• Allcorrect
• Side

Large players but rating lower than many mid-sized studios:

• Keywords
• Lionbridge

Companies with lower ProZ Blue Board ratings in this sample:

• Roboto Global
• Alpha CRC

Small but highly rated localization studios:

• GameScribes
• Quantic Lab
• Native Prime
• Universally Speaking
• Levsha Games

Insights from Localization Company Experience Research

Global map of the game localization industry

Ireland is the absolute center of expertise in game localization with ≈760 projects. This result is due to Keywords and Allcorrect being headquartered here.

The USA is the second center with ≈411 projects, but the experience is distributed among several companies:

• Logrus IT
• Lionbridge
• TransPerfect
• GameScribes

Poland and Germany are strong European hubs. Poland ≈290 projects, Germany ≈284 projects.

Spain is the largest studio cluster with ≈244 projects, but they are distributed between many companies.

The x-axis shows the number of localization companies in the country, and the y-axis shows the total number of localized projects. The circle size represents the average company experience (projects per company).

Market Concentration

According to MobyGames data, the game localization market is highly concentrated: Keywords localizes about 19% of all projects. Top-3 (Keywords, Allcorrect, Effective Media) already do almost a third of all localizations, top-10 companies together do ≈61% of the market. The remaining 37 companies share ≈39% of the market.

Research Conclusions

Our research shows that the global game localization market is geographically distributed across 18 countries and more than 40 companies. However, it is actually quite concentrated: about 61% of all localized projects fall on the ten largest players, and almost a third — on three leading companies. At the same time, centers of expertise and centers of company concentration do not coincide: the greatest accumulated experience is concentrated in Ireland, the USA, and Poland, while the largest number of studios is located in Spain, Germany, and the UK.

The market is also characterized by differences in all other parameters: several large industry players combine high experience and activity, while a significant portion of small studios forms the “long tail” of the market and often has a higher rating among translators on platforms like ProZ.

As a result, the global game localization industry consists of several centers of strength and a large number of niche companies of different sizes, with different activity and reputation among freelancers.

“I expect the market to segment along the following lines:
1. Super Indies/High Volume/Procedurally Generated Content: These areas will most benefit from AI-powered productivity tools, will be the most budget sensitive, and will increasingly favor “good enough” machine translation or hyper efficient hybrid solutions.
2. Core Story Content / FTUE: High quality and nuanced translation is paramount here, and small errors will be noticed and commented on. Human translation (and high quality hybrid approaches) will continue to be favored, making a company’s reputation, process, and transparency more important than ever rather than purely competing on cost.
There is an opportunity here for publishers to reinvest any cost savings from AI-enabled automation into localizing underserved markets/languages beyond traditional EFIGS and Chinese options, which would be a huge win for everyone.”

— Rory Madden
BD Consultant for Video Games

In monetary terms, the study shows that the gaming outsourcing market after reassembling segments and excluding related services amounts to approximately USD 10 billion in 2025, while the game text localization segment is about USD 246 million and, unlike more stable areas like game development and testing, experiences the greatest pressure from AI.

The key trend of recent years is not the disappearance of demand for outsourcing, but AI price erosion: the average cost per unit of work decreases due to automation, partial substitution of human labor, and general price pressure. So the market can grow in volume and number of tasks, but grow more slowly or even stagnate in revenue in individual segments.

“The gaming industry has been growing for more than 40 years, which is why outsourcing within it has long been seen as a naturally expanding market.
But for localization, especially text localization, AI has become a truly systemic challenge on a different scale. It will not make localization outsourcing disappear, but it will change the very logic of competition: simply saying “we can translate faster and cheaper” is no longer enough.
The winners will be the companies that can turn AI from a source of pricing pressure into a tool for new efficiency, while preserving quality, process control, and client trust. AI tools are cheap and equally accessible to everyone in the market. The leaders will be those that can offer clear additional value to their partners.
That is why 2026 looks less like a year of collapsing demand and more like a year of hard market repricing, when weak operating models begin to give way to more mature and more technology-enabled players.
The future of localization lies in the combination of automation, quality control, and production discipline.”

— Dmitrii Filatov
Narwhal.ax, CEO

According to our model, after 2023, the gaming outsourcing market as a whole has been growing by approximately 4–5% per year, while text localization is shrinking for the second year in a row, which makes it one of the most vulnerable areas.

At the same time, AI not only pressures prices but also simultaneously makes creating new games cheaper. It increases the total volume of potential content for localization, and therefore, the basic conclusion of the study is this: the market isn’t disappearing, but restructures — money is redistributed, margins are compressed, and the companies that can combine automation, quality control, and a sustainable production model will win.

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