Compared to 2018, the number of studios more than doubled in Brazil in 2022, when 1,009 studios were registered as opposed to 375 identified four years ago. According to the Brazil Games Industry Report 2022, this is due to the increasingly longer period of activity of these companies (almost 20% of them are in the range of 10 to 15 years of activity) – and also to the emerging opportunities abroad.
The geographic distribution of the studios is also worth noting. The Southeast holds about 57% of the national companies, followed by the South, which holds 21%. They are followed by the Northeast, Midwest and North regions.
Brazil currently has about 12,441 people working in game development, 30% of which are women – in 2018, it was 20%. And that’s not all: more than half of the Brazilian studios claim to have a diverse workforce, with black, brown or indigenous people, foreigners, people with disabilities or from the LGBTQIA+ community as employees.
Abragames (Brazilian Game Companies Association), a non-profit organization national representation of the industry, works for the growth of the market, providing assistance to the studios and continuously supporting the industry.
Flying high and abroad! Investing in Brazil!
A chat between Brazilian companies that recently received international investment. Success cases that will be told by the CEOs.
National events promote studios and give rise to business
The growth of the Brazilian games market is not only for the high number of international investments, but also by the increase of events specialized in the industry. Brazil hosts some of the most important games events in Latin America. The country is today one of the most important stages for companies looking to promote their products and find new business, in addition to getting partnerships.
And the events in Brazil are growing year by year in the number of exhibitors and also in the number of visitors. And to confirm the information, we have the results recorded by the 10th edition of the BIG Festival which broke divers records in 2022.
The festival took place from July 7 to 10, 2022, in São Paulo, and hosted around 30 thousand visitors for four days. There were more than 120 million interactions on social media and more than 300 million in partner profiles. Six thousand business meetings were scheduled during the festival, with a record number of companies: there were 669, of which 429 were from Brazil. More than 1,300 professionals from the gaming market were at BIG Festival.
The prospect for business developed at BIG Festival 2022 also increased impressively: more than half a billion reais (R$ 500,000,000), around US$ 100 million.
Another event with an impact on the gaming market is the Brasil Game Show (BGS) – the 13th edition will be held from October 6 to 12, 2022. The expectation for BGS 2022 is getting bigger each day – this will be the first BGS in person event after the pandemic. For the first time, BGS, which is focused on the consumer market, will take place over seven days.
The BGS will have 400 exhibiting companies in 2022 and will be attending all pavilions of the Expo Center Norte, in São Paulo. In 2019, when the last edition was attended, the event hosted more than 320 thousand visitors and allocated more than 280 thousand reais to the awards of eSports championships. BGS is the largest games fair in Latin America and one of the largest in the world in audience and area of exhibition.
Interviews with game market professionals captured during BIG Festival 2022 exclusively for BRAZIL GAMES WEEK.
Partner and Chief StoryTelling Officer at ARVORE
Executive Producer for Development at O2 Filmes
Vice-president at Abragames/Brazil Games and Partner and Lead Producer at Aiyra
Journalist at Grupo Expansión/Mexico
Founder and CEO at Recode
Director of Innovation and Audiovisual Policies at Spcine
Game Producer at MNSTR Studio
CEO at AbleGamers Brasil
Partner and Business Director at Aquiris Game Studio
