Neogames: The state of Finland's games industry in 2026

This guest post was written by Neogames Finland's Suvi Latva and KooPee Hiltunen.

We Finns haven't traditionally been very vocal about marketing or bragging about ourselves.

Finnish game developers typically make headlines in three scenarios: when they've raised funds, when they've been acquired, or when they've gone out of business. In recent years, there have been a few bankruptcy cases and very little news about successful investments or acquisitions.

Combined with the challenging domestic economic situation, geopolitical uncertainties and the global wave of layoffs, this has created a rather sombre atmosphere within the Finnish games industry. However, there's a wide spectrum between "being number one" and "totally losing the game", and it's time to set the record straight with some facts.

Make no mistake – We are still strong in mobile

Mobile games remain the largest financial asset of the Finnish games industry and setbacks in this sector significantly impact our sector, especially new startups.

The challenges are particularly acute for the new generation of mobile startups due to several factors: the limited chances of success for new mobile games and companies, the lack of venture capital funding, shrinking public innovation funding, and overall market uncertainty. 

While we can certainly improve by adapting to market changes in the mobile sector, it's important to remember that the Finnish mobile games sector is still performing well thanks to our strong, seasoned mobile studios like Supercell, Small Giant, Rovio, Metacore and Fingersoft. As an example of the traction and long-term commitment of players, the Hill Climb Racing game just hit two billion downloads.

We are eagerly awaiting more success from the next generation of mobile studios, such as Phantom Gamelabs, Cosmic Lounge, Seven Stars, Future Run, Pinecone, 721 Games and many others.

Diversity in platforms – Creativity paving future success

However, the Finnish games industry is not solely about mobile game development. We also have a strong presence in PC and console game development and some promising starts in online and other platforms.

We take great pride in the risky and non-mainstream ventures that our highly creative industry has produced over the years and strongly encourage their continuation. This is proven not only by older companies like Housemarque and Remedy, but also by some newer ones.

On the PC side, My Winter Car, released by Amishtech at the end of December 2025, generated an estimated over $4 million in gross revenue in just three weeks. The Last Care Taker, released in November 2025 by Channel 37, made over $7 million in gross revenue in 1.5 months.

Sledders by Hanki Games (published by Finnish Publisher Bonus Stage Publishing) is doing well on Steam, as is Finnish Cottage Simulator by Ranele Games.

In the end, creativity is one of our industry's strongest assets and it cannot be forced just with longer hours or more money.

Versatility and new opportunities – The future starts now

It's always wise not to put all your eggs in one basket. Versatility is deeply ingrained in the DNA of Finnish game developers.

Regarding unexplored opportunities, unknown territories and unproven markets outside traditional platforms, we've seen ventures like Next Games/Netflix Studio launching their series of puzzle games, Return Entertainment with smart TV games, All Hats with Roblox and BitMagic creating their own AI UGC platform. On the tools side, things are looking good with Metaplay and Quicksave.

Community – The non-rejected cornerstone

Another solid and unique asset of the Finnish games industry is our community. IGDA Finland has 18 active local hubs from Helsinki to the world’s northernmost hub in Rovaniemi. Finnish Game Jam broke records in 2025, creating 325 games with 1088 jammers across 23 sites, with almost 10% of all the participants of Global Game Jam coming from Finland.

Finland consistently ranks first in games created per capita in GGJ and has organised more GGJ sites and participants than all other Nordic countries combined.

Some other great examples of how we Finns support each other were the Finnish Games Week on STEAM, organised by W Love Games, and events like the Finnish Game Awards Gala, supported or organised by Suomen Pelinkehittäjät ry (Finnish Game Developer Studios Association).

Regional support and future prospects

We also have essential support elements in several regions, including Kajaani Game City, Espoo Game Lab, LGIN in Helsinki, Tampere Game Hub, Qvarken Game Lab in Ostrobothnia and EXPA in Jyväskylä.

All these areas are fully devoted to supporting not only the local games industry but also fostering grassroots-level game development, aiming to build bridges between different industries and education.

The results of investments in regional clusters and grassroots levels are tricky to measure, as tangible results take time to materialise, often five years or more. However, these investments are essential for the ecosystem's continuity and its ability to produce new success stories in the future.

New games, new studios – New horizons

We haven't finished calculating the number of commercial games released by Finnish developers in 2025, but our estimate is at the moment at least around 60 new games.

Adding to this, 75 new game startups have been born in the last three years. It's evident that the Finnish games industry is alive and kicking.

However, we must be honest and admit that the situation is challenging in Finland too. We feel warm empathy towards the entrepreneurs who had to close their studios last year.

Focus on what we can influence

Instead of focusing on all the difficulties we can’t affect, we should focus on things we can influence. At Neogames, we've been pondering these issues and have identified a few areas we could concentrate on as an industry:

Supporting independent developers: We appreciate the diversity among company types, but there's a need to boost business understanding at all levels, especially among young developers and entrepreneurs.

Business skills need to be improved across all types of game development, whether it's for making a living or building larger studios and scale-ups to fuel our industry's success. We have solid traditions and skills in game development, but need to understand that even indie games deserve more attention and a market-oriented approach to add value to all.

Hiring juniors: Juniors should be hired more often in games companies. We shouldn't miss the incredible opportunity to not only adapt but also take advantage of the current disruption in the games market at all levels. Utilising the freshest approaches and newest knowledge from young minds is crucial.

Gamification and transindustry opportunities: While gamification is a term that can make some industry veterans sick in their stomachs, now is the time to truly explore its opportunities in transmedia and transindustry.

The Finnish games industry is mature enough to explore opportunities with other sectors. We are already seeing proven solutions in these areas, so we need to properly explore these opportunities.

All in all - We are pretty OK

This year, 2026, will be brilliant for the Finnish games industry, not only because we need to lift our heads and stop waiting for Armageddon, but also because we need to stop echoing depressive moods and the lack of vision for the future.

There is concrete evidence that our industry is solid and strong. We have new and creative ventures on all platforms and tools; our game developer community is stronger than ever. 

Companies are exploring opportunities to join forces not only in transmedia sectors like with the Clash of Clans animation and Angry Birds movies, but also between other industries like the defense space (transindustry).

Awesome Finnish game productions will see the daylight in 2026, such as Saros by Housemarque and Control Resonant by Remedy Entertainment. We have all the building blocks needed to create more success.

It wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if many Finnish game developers were a little more open to talking about their work publicly, not just in extreme cases.

It's not the time to panic. As we say in Finland, “Ei auta itku markkinoilla”, which roughly translates to: “crying in the marketplace doesn’t help".

Pocket Gamer Connects will be heading to the Nordics this year with PGC Summit Malmo in May (TBC) and PGC Nordics in Helsinki on October 13th and 14th. Check out our global events schedule here.