Tech Roundup: Brazil gaming industry booms

Photo: Diego Thomazini/Shutterstock

Welcome to our Tech Roundup, where we bring you the biggest stories in technology and innovation in Brazil and Latin America. This week: The gaming industry in Brazil continues to evolve, opening up new business and career opportunities.

Key figures on gaming as work and entertainment in Brazil

A new survey by gaming industry association Abragames, Brazilian trade promotion agency Apex-Brasil, and GA Consulting found that the country had 1,042 game development studios in operation in 2023, up 3.2 percent from 2022 and more than double the number identified in 2018, before the Covid pandemic.

State of play. Latin America’s largest economy is also one of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing gaming markets. As such, Brazilian developers are increasingly on the international radar, as the 2022/2023 biennium has shown:

March 2022: Brazilian developer Oktagon, creator of the smartphone games Armies & Ants and Dungeon Battles, is acquired by Fortis, a newly formed North American company and publisher, joining previously acquired developers Doppio Games and Metagame.
May 2022: Brazilian developer Rogue Snail has its game Relic Hunters: Rebels distributed exclusively by Netflix.
November 2022: PUGA, from the northeastern state of Pernambucano, is acquired by developer Room 8 Group.
April 2023: Epic Games completed the acquisition of developer Aquiris, creating Epic Games Brasil.

By the numbers. Game developers in...

Fabiane Ziolla Menezes

Former editor-in-chief of LABS (Latin America Business Stories), Fabiane has more than 15 years of experience reporting on business, finance, innovation, and cities in Brazil. The latter recently took her back to the classroom and made her a Master in Urban Management from PUCPR. At TBR, she keeps an eye on economic policy, game-changing businesses, and people driving innovation in Latin America.