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🇫🇮 Market guide · 2026

Finland's games industry: Helsinki, Oulu and Tampere

Finland punches far above its size in games, home to studios behind some of the most played mobile games in the world. Here is the state of the industry from the latest Neogames report, the main city scenes, and how Finnish studios work with co-development and porting partners.

The short answer

Finland's games industry earned about EUR 2.85 billion in 2024, according to Neogames, with around 270 active studios and roughly 4,300 employees. Most turnover comes from the Helsinki capital region, home to companies such as Supercell, Rovio and Remedy, while Oulu, home to Fingersoft and Oulu Game Lab, and Tampere have active studio scenes of their own. Finnish studios commonly work with external partners for co-development, porting, art and LiveOps when they need extra capacity.

The industry in numbers

Neogames, the Finnish game industry hub, publishes a regular report on the sector. Its report covering 2024 gives these figures:

Measure2024 (Neogames)
Industry turnoverAbout EUR 2.85 billion, below a 2022 peak above EUR 3 billion
Active studiosAbout 270 at the end of 2024, up from 232 at the end of 2022
EmployeesAbout 4,300, of whom about 3,800 work in Finland
ConcentrationNearly half of studios are in the capital region, which accounts for most of the turnover

The report also notes lower investment than in the 2021–2022 boom and a shift by some companies to fiscal years running April to March, so year-on-year comparisons need care. The picture is of a mature industry with a few very large companies and a long tail of smaller studios, many of them founded in the last few years.

Helsinki and the capital region

The capital region, which includes Helsinki and Espoo, hosts the companies that made Finland famous in games: Supercell in Helsinki, Rovio in Espoo, and Remedy Entertainment in Espoo, alongside many smaller studios. It is where most of the industry's revenue, investors and senior talent are concentrated.

Oulu

Oulu, in northern Finland, has a smaller but distinctive scene. It is home to Fingersoft, the studio behind the Hill Climb Racing series, and to Oulu Game Lab, a game development programme at Oulu University of Applied Sciences that trains developers through real projects. The city's technology history, with a strong base in mobile and telecoms engineering, feeds both studios and wider tech companies.

Studios in Oulu, like elsewhere in Finland, often look for external partners when a project needs more hands than a small local team can provide, for example for porting, extra content or art.

Tampere

Tampere combines university game research with a growing community of studios and events. Like Oulu, it is a source of new developers and new companies, many of which work with partners on parts of their production.

How Finnish studios use partners

NeedTypical partner work
Extra capacityCo-development teams building features or content alongside the core team
New platformsPorting mobile games to PC, Steam or consoles
Art2D and 3D assets, characters, environments, UI and effects
QADevice testing, regression testing and submission checks
LiveOpsEvents, offers and content updates after launch
PrototypingFast prototypes to test new ideas without pulling the core team off live games

Our article on co-development explains how two teams work on one codebase, and game porting covers moving games to new platforms.

What Finnish studios look for in a partner

  • Engineering quality: code the core team can review and maintain after the partner leaves.
  • Clear ownership: contracts that assign all code, art and IP to the studio on payment.
  • Transparency: access to the repository, task board and builds at all times.
  • Fit with live operations: partners who can work inside an existing release cadence without breaking it.
  • Honest estimates: milestone plans with clear assumptions rather than optimistic day rates.

Our guide to choosing a game development studio lists the questions to ask any partner, and why outsourcing partnerships fail covers the warning signs.

Working across time zones

Finland is on Eastern European Time, UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 in summer. A studio on US Pacific time is ten hours behind, so collaboration works best with a daily overlap window, written handovers at the end of each day, and weekly playable builds. Many Finnish teams are used to this rhythm from working with partners in other regions.

Publishers and partners: knowing the difference

Developers searching for a publisher in Finland should know the difference between roles. A publisher funds, markets and distributes games, usually for a revenue share. A development or co-development partner builds games or parts of games for a fee, and the developer or publisher keeps the IP. A Plus Games Studio is the second kind: we build, port and support games for studios and publishers. Our guides on funding an indie game and pitching to publishers cover the publishing side.

Working with A Plus Games Studio

We work with studios in Finland and across Europe on co-development, porting, art and LiveOps, with milestone pricing and full IP transfer. See our Finland page or co-development services.

Sources: Neogames Finland · Game Dev Reports: Neogames, Finnish game industry in 2025 · Supercell: about · Fingersoft · Oulu University of Applied Sciences. Checked October 20, 2026.

Related: Game development for Finland · Co-development · Outsource game development

FAQ

Quick answers ❓

How big is Finland's games industry?

According to Neogames, Finland's game industry had turnover of about EUR 2.85 billion in 2024, with around 270 active studios at the end of the year and roughly 4,300 employees.

Which game studios are in Oulu, Finland?

Oulu is home to Fingersoft, the studio behind Hill Climb Racing, and to Oulu Game Lab at Oulu University of Applied Sciences, which trains developers through real game projects, along with smaller studios.

Where are most Finnish game studios located?

Nearly half of Finnish studios are in the capital region, including Helsinki and Espoo, which accounts for most of the industry's turnover. Oulu and Tampere also have active studio scenes.

Do Finnish game studios outsource?

Many work with external partners for co-development, porting, art, QA and LiveOps when they need extra capacity, while keeping core design and IP in-house.

Is A Plus Games Studio a publisher?

No. We are a development and co-development partner: we build, port and support games for studios and publishers for a fee, and the client keeps the IP.

Related guides

Game co-development explained → Game porting →

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