The Gaming Market in Poland

Content:

1. General Information
2. The Gaming Market
3. Player Profile
4. General Player Statistics
5. OS Distribution & Average Internet Speed
6. Popular Social Media
7. Largest Gaming Companies
8. Top Gaming Apps
9. Polish Localization Examples

General Information

Poland (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe. Located in the center of Europe, Poland is the sixth largest country in the European Union in terms of total area. The country shares land borders with Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and Lithuania and Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) to the northeast.

Poland’s population exceeds 37.5 million, making it the fifth most populous country in the EU.

Administratively, the country is divided into 16 provinces. The capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other major cities are Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, and Gdańsk.

Poland is a mono-ethnic state, with Poles making up more than 98.84% of the population. Most believers (about 71.30% of the population) are Catholic, making Poland the country with the largest Catholic population in Central Europe.

In terms of its political system, it is a unitary state and a mixed republic. The president is Karol Nawrocki. The prime minister is Donald Tusk.

Poland is an industrial country with a developed economy, high income, and high standard of living. The currency is the Polish złoty (average exchange rate as of 2025: 3.7 złotys to 1 US dollar). In 2023, the GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) was $1.706 trillion; GDP per capita at PPP was $46,412 per year.

Key Figures:

The Gaming Market

Poland is one of Europe’s leading video game producers: 97% of all games developed in Poland are sold on global markets. In addition to game development, Poland has established itself in digital distribution, localization, and outsourcing, becoming Europe’s largest QA and testing center.

As one of the youngest but fastest-growing sectors of the creative industry, Polish game development has the potential for growth due to global demand for interactive entertainment, the high level of expertise of its specialists, and the competitiveness of gaming companies on the global market.

Despite the downturn in the gaming industry, the Polish sector remains stable—employment has fallen only slightly, and key studios continue to work on major projects. More than 40 Polish gaming companies have already surpassed the milestone of one million copies sold worldwide.

Game Studios

In 2025, the Polish gaming industry had 824 studios and 14,568 employees. Although this report presents a significantly higher number of game developers and publishers compared to the 2023 report, this figure does not reflect the actual growth of the industry. The increase is mainly due to a change in methodology, namely the expansion of automated data collection, supplemented by manual verification and improved data processing. It is important to emphasize that this figure should not be interpreted as the number of registered companies, as it refers specifically to the number of active studios.

Under the Polish tax system, it is completely legal to operate a game development studio and correctly fulfill tax obligations without formally registering a company.

It should be noted that the industry has experienced a significant crisis. Among the studios considered active in the 2023 report, at least 120 have since either ceased to exist, suspended operations, or completely abandoned game development. This means that approximately one in four studios has disappeared in two years, which is a telling example of how difficult this period has been for the sector.

Number of Released Games

The annual number of games released has declined slightly over the past two years, but this is primarily due to changes in the mobile segment, where there has been a reduction in the number of hyper-casual studios, as well as the continuing decline of the virtual reality market.

Game Exports

97% of Polish developers’ revenue comes from abroad.

The main regions generating income for Polish gaming companies are North America, Europe, and Asia. Depending on the genre of a particular project, each of these regions can account for 20% to 40% of total sales.

Within Europe, Polish projects most often perform best in the UK, Germany, and France. Although these European markets are smaller in absolute terms than, for example, Japan or South Korea, they tend to provide more stable revenues for Polish studios.

In Japan, Polish developers have achieved success on various platforms, including Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation. Japanese players often show interest in horror games from Poland, and some projects are even developed with Japanese preferences in mind. South Korea occasionally responds positively to niche genres such as strategy simulators available on Steam. However, both East Asian markets remain less predictable and are more dependent on specific titles in terms of commercial results.

Gaming Market Features and State of Industry

Currently, less than a third of Polish game studios regularly generate significant revenue. A significant part of the sector is still made up of teams working on their first commercial release, reflecting the nature of a young industry that continues to scale up, often with limited resources.

The number of public companies in the sector continues to grow, albeit at a much slower pace. As of 2025, despite the fact that seven companies have either ceased operations or left the stock market, the Polish gaming sector still includes 24 companies traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and 71 companies represented on the NewConnect market (an alternative stock market in Poland for small and growing companies). On the main market of the Warsaw Stock Exchange, all but four companies report annual revenues in excess of €1.5 million, with a median value of €6.8 million.

At the same time, the broader market—especially among companies trading on NewConnect—remains more fragmented, with many participants still in the early or irregular stages of commercial activity. Of the 71 companies, five are in long-term suspension, and another six have not reported significant revenues for an extended period, raising doubts about their operational activity. Another 13 companies reported revenues of less than €250,000 for the last financial year.

This uneven picture highlights the dual nature of Poland‘s public game development ecosystem, which includes both globally recognized players and a bunch of small companies dealing with chronic capital shortages. For investors, this may still represent untapped potential, provided that capital is allocated more efficiently in favor of companies with real growth prospects.