The UK’s Emerging Gaming Companies 2024

The gaming industry has been hard-hit now that the highs of Covid-19 have worn off. And with news like Humble Games shutting down, which happened just last week, it remains a turbulent time in gaming — particularly for indie gaming companies.

But are the rumours true? Is the indie gaming industry dying? Or is there still investment going into UK gaming companies? We explore the UK’s gaming industry and bring you the UK-based developers and publishers that are currently gaining momentum.

Methodology for this article

For insights on the UK’s gaming industry, we have only included companies that are:

• Headquartered in the UK
• Active on Companies House
• In the ‘video games’ industry

To create our list of emerging gaming companies, we ranked companies that have gained equity investment since the beginning of 2024. We have only included seed stage companies to get a better view of companies that are ‘emerging’ onto the UK market, rather than larger companies that are continually gaining investment.

The history of UK gaming companies

Across the gaming industry, it’s no secret that it’s been hard hit in recent years but the UK has a rich gaming history with some major gaming companies starting up here. Rockstar North (Rockstar Games), Codemasters, and Creative Assembly were all founded in the UK. That means some of the world’s most famous games hail from the UK — Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto and global racing games such as F1 2022.

In 2023, it was reported that the UK’s gaming industry was worth £7.82b, a 4.4% net increase from 2022 — and from our data, we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of active gaming companies in the UK.

*The graph above includes companies that have been dissolved.

But looking at active companies, we can see the majority are in their seed stage — 42.7%. Out of the active companies, 22.8% are in the venture stage, and 6.7% are in the growth stage. This shows us that the market is represented by relatively nascent companies. Should these companies continue to gain investment, we could see a groundswell of innovation in UK game development.

Challenges facing the UK’s gaming industry

We spoke to a Producer at a South East UK gaming company that said there was a lot of evidence that UK gaming companies had a big post Covid-19 cash injection as more and more people were playing video games. But since this high in 2022, investment has dropped off. This is backed up by our data.

We can see here that investment started increasing after a two-year lull in 2018 and 2019, then skyrocketed in 2022. This has since dropped off significantly. But as we can see, the total amount invested in 2024 is already £207m. If this trend continues, we could see another upwards trajectory for investment into gaming companies.

Cross industry collaboration

Cross-industry collaboration in the UK’s gaming industry has become a significant driver of innovation and growth for the UK market.

Partnerships between game developers and other sectors such as film, television, music, education, and even healthcare can lead to new and exciting avenues for both parties. For example, collaborations with the film and television industry allow game developers to incorporate advanced storytelling techniques and cinematic visuals into their games.

One example of this from Evercast, is Fortnite: Save the World, where you learn more about the world as you progress as opposed to a classic levelling up game structure.

The music industry also plays a crucial role, with artists contributing original soundtracks that enhance the gaming experience. The Royal Albert Hall also has several events every year dedicated to video game music.

In the education sector, games are increasingly used as tools for learning and training, leveraging gamification to teach subjects ranging from history to science and even soft skills like teamwork and problem-solving.

Similarly, in healthcare, games are being developed to support mental health, physical rehabilitation, and therapy, demonstrating the therapeutic potential of interactive media.

One key element of this is the production and introduction of artificial intelligence, AR and VR.

AR and VR

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have become huge components of modern gaming.

Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality are rapidly transforming the gaming landscape. Collaborations with tech firms allow game developers to integrate cutting-edge technologies into their products, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in interactive entertainment.

Companies such as Improbable, Blippar, and nDreams are leading the way in AR and VR development, creating innovative experiences and solutions.

Looking at solely the virtual reality and augmented reality industries, we can see a sharp increase in active companies in the UK since 2015. In 2015 there were 489 active companies and as of the end of 2023 there were 1,421 active VR and AR companies active in the UK.

*The graph once again includes companies that have been dissolved.

The UK’s gaming creative hubs

London came in first place for the number of active gaming companies (37.3% of all the companies found in the UK), with a large proportion of those being located in the City of London and the City of Westminster.

The South East has the second highest number of active gaming companies — 14.4%. The highest concentration of those were based in Brighton & Hove which is home to 116 gaming companies. Brighton is also home to one of the world’s biggest gaming conferences: Develop.

The East of England makes up 8.1% of UK gaming companies, and the South West comprises 6.6% of companies, 66 of which are based in Bristol which is often accredited as a creative hub for gaming companies.

Across the British Isles, Scotland equated to 4.8% of total gaming companies, with 255 active companies. Wales came in third place, making up 3.4%, and Northern Ireland is home to 1.3% of all UK gaming companies.

Up-and-coming gaming companies

We’ve ranked companies based on the largest amount raised since the beginning of this year, 2024. All companies listed are in the seed stage of evolution.

Sustainability and diversity in the UK’s gaming industry [ESG data]

Out of the 5,280 companies we looked at, 136 hit one or more of our Social & Governance Signals. This was overwhelmingly due to age diversity in the directorial team (112 companies), which is unsurprising given the intergenerational nature of the industry. Only 17 companies hit our signal for having gender equality across the directorial team, and just four companies hit our signal for having gender pay equality (including Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ubisoft Reflections).

From our data, just six companies hit one of our Environmental Signals. Fam Studio was the only company to have both an Environmental Signal and a Social & Governance Signal for its environmental accolades and gender equality across its board of directors.

As we noted in our up-and-coming gaming companies list, just one had a female founder, and we can see there’s a landslide majority for male founders across this industry as a whole. According to our data, 76.9% of the active gaming companies in the UK right now have an all-male director team and 5.4% are majority male. Just 6.6% of gaming companies are run by an all-female team, and 10.3% have an equal split.

A producer we spoke to said she’d found the games industry was often male-dominated, especially in tech teams, but was seeing an increasing number of non-men in other areas of the gaming industry such as production, art and design. She also told us that she hardly ever saw women or non-binary people on the team of startup indie gaming companies.

Where to find this data…

We use data directly from the Beauhurst platform to produce articles like this one.

On Beauhurst, you can find data on over 4.6m companies across 225 industries.

If you’re already a Beauhurst subscriber, you can easily find UK gaming companies like the ones featured in this article using the platform. Click the button below, and your search will be automatically populated with the criteria we used to find the UK’s emerging gaming companies.