FINLAND IS KNOWN for its strong mobile game development. However, the dominance of the mobile has weakened, when comparing the platforms for which developers are developing their games.
PC is now as popular a platform as mobile (both 61%). When cross checking the age and platform preferences, mature companies favor mobile (77%) over PC (57%), and early stage startups favor PC (53%) over mobile (20%). With established companies and startups, PC was mentioned almost as often as mobile. Successful Finnish mobile games are well known - such as Angry Birds and Clash of Clans, and many other titles - but Finnish studios have also created successful games on PC and consoles. The latest successful games on console are Remedy’s Alan Wake II and Housemarque’s Returnal. Recently there’s new indie hits on PC, such as Sledders, Road to Vostok and Finnish Cottage Simulator.
In 2024, most of the Finnish games released were PC games (over 70%). Games-as-a-service model, where mobile developers focus also on updating and improving their live games, limits the number of new games released on mobile.
Multi-platform game development is common in Finland, with 58% of interviewees mentioning they are developing games for more than one platform, and 23% for three or more platforms. 42% are focusing on a single platform, mostly mobile (iOS and Android). 20% of the studios interviewed develop their games only for mobile, whereas the share of developers focusing solemnly on PC development, covers 10% of the interviewees. Although this study lacks information on the popularity of different mobile platforms (iOS, Android, other) or console platforms (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch), all individual platforms are accounted for in their respective categories.
Developing games for browsers has become more popular during the past two years, supporting the growth of the “Other” category’s popularity. 14% of the interviewed studios are developing web/browser games, while during 2021-2022 only 6.5% of developers were creating web/browser games. Web/browser (HTML, HTML5, web, browser) was the most common answer under the “Other” category in the interviews. VR/AR was mentioned only rarely, and SmartTVs were also mentioned in individual responses.
Finnish developers generally focus on traditional platforms, but are also finding new ones. The popularity of mobile and PC decreased some percentages from the last study, while console and “Other” (mainly due to web/browser game development) gained more popularity.
