Canadian video game industry has more than doubled over the past decade, growing from 775 domestic companies in 2013 to 1,628 by 2022.

A Statistics Canada report released in September attributes this expansion largely to Canadian-owned businesses, studios focused primarily on game development rather than publishing, and very small teams with fewer than five employees.

This growth has also translated into significantly higher revenues, which climbed from roughly $2 billion to $7 billion over the same period.

Most studios are small and owned by Canadians.

The report notes that in 2022, 97.4 percent of video game companies operating in Canada were domestically owned, and 77.5 percent were micro-studios employing fewer than five people.

However, foreign-owned companies, typically larger operations with 20 or more employees, generated more revenue than their Canadian counterparts that year, bringing in $4 billion compared to $3 billion from Canadian-owned firms.

The report highlights two additional trends. First, women now make up about one-quarter of the Canadian game industry workforce. Their share of employment rose from 17.8 percent in 2013 to 24.5 percent in 2021, while their share of total compensation increased from 14.4 percent to 20 percent over the same period.

Statistics Canada notes that women’s representation in employment is growing faster than their share of pay, likely because many new entrants are starting in lower-paid, entry-level roles.

The second key metric concerns business entry and exit rates. From 2014 to 2018, new game studios entered the market at higher rates than the broader private sector, but from 2019 to 2021 those rates fell below the average for all private employers. Over the 2014–2021 period, exit rates for game studios were consistently much lower than those seen across other private industries.

Based on this data, Statistics Canada concluded that studio closures in Canada’s video game industry have historically been “relatively rare.”

That picture, however, appears to be shifting. While several companies—including People Can Fly and Avalanche Studios—have opened new studios in Canada, recent years have also brought layoffs and closures affecting many workers.

In 2023, Ubisoft Montreal reduced staff as part of broader company cuts that impacted Quebec. In 2024, Sumo Group laid off 15 percent of its workforce across Canada, Poland, and other regions. Around the same time, long-running Canadian developer Hothead Games closed after nearly two decades, following a bankruptcy filing. More recently, Atomhawk, an outsourcing studio owned by Sumo Group, shut down its Canadian office after eight years of operation.

Still, there are signs of momentum on the labor front. In June, Ubisoft Halifax filed to unionize with CWA Canada. This followed the creation of United Videogame Workers–CWA in March, an industry-wide union formed by workers across Canada and the U.S., as well as organizing efforts launched in May 2024 by Quebec game workers in partnership with the CSN, aimed at supporting unionization at major studios throughout the region.