New Zealand’s video game developers earned more than $1 billion in a year for the first time, but they did it with fewer people on the payroll. The New Zealand Game Developers Association’s 2026 annual survey, released on 1 October, puts industry revenue for the 2025/26 financial year at $1.002 billion, up 32 per cent from $759 million the year before.
The association had set $1 billion as a target for 2028 when the Government’s Game Development Sector Rebate was announced in 2023. It signalled in May that the industry had crossed the line early, and the full survey now confirms it.
Almost all of that money comes from overseas. The survey found 95 per cent of revenue, or $947 million, came from international sales, up from 93 per cent the previous year. That makes games one of the most export-heavy industries in the country, and one that sends its product around the world without a ship, a container or a port.
The less comfortable number is jobs. Full-time equivalent staff across the industry fell 11.1 per cent, from 1,418 to 1,261, the first time in recent years the workforce has not grown alongside revenue.
“This decline was not a sign of a broader slowdown, but the result of two isolated events, the closure of one studio, and another studio’s decision to focus on a screen specific project,” association executive director Joy Keene said in the release.
Fewer staff and more revenue means each job is now worth a great deal more. Revenue per full-time worker rose 48.5 per cent, from $535,204 to $794,607.
The association also says studios reported more than $213 million in combined income tax and PAYE, close to double the previous year. It calculates that equals a return of $9.73 for every dollar the Government spends on the rebate, up from $4.74 a year earlier. That figure is the industry’s own estimate from its own survey, and it is the main argument the sector will make for keeping the rebate in place after the election.
Not everyone is ready to take the headline number on trust. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment told RNZ it did not have independent data to confirm the $1 billion figure. What it can confirm is that the 43 studios that received the rebate, which paid out about $22 million last year, earned $829 million between them. Not every studio is eligible.
Those rebate figures, published by NZ On Air in July, tell a similar story on jobs. Revenue across the 43 studios rose 17 per cent, from $710 million to $829 million, and the number of games in development grew from 170 to 194. But full-time equivalent staff at those studios fell from 1,288 to 1,124. NZ On Air said 98 per cent of their revenue came from exports and 90 per cent of the recipients were small or medium-sized businesses.
The association used its annual conference in Auckland, the New Zealand Game Developers Conference, to launch its first workforce report, built from a 2025 survey of developers and salary data supplied by NZ On Air. It found developers broadly happy at work, with about 70 per cent working hybrid or fully remote. On gender the industry is ahead of the global picture, with 32 per cent of respondents female and 7 to 8 per cent non-binary or gender diverse, against roughly 24 per cent women worldwide.
But the report flags pay as a risk, warning that flat local salaries now compete with offers from overseas studios. It also found 55 per cent of developers feel uncomfortable using artificial intelligence tools in their work, even though 60 per cent can see a practical use for them.
“Our people love what they do and where they work. But keeping them here, and attracting the next generation, will require deliberate action on pay, career frameworks, and how studios engage with emerging technology,” Keene said.
“A healthy, well-paid, well-supported workforce is what turns a record year into a sustainable industry,” association chair Anna Barham said.
The report publishes the industry’s first salary benchmarks, covering ten disciplines from quality assurance to heads of department across three levels of seniority. The association says it will repeat the survey every two years. The full workforce report is free to download.
On the ground, the picture for people trying to get into the industry is mixed. Rory Rackham, who worked on Path of Exile, one of the most successful games made in New Zealand, and now runs his own studio Hugenormous Games, told RNZ that new graduates face a crowded field.
“It is real tough in game development. There’s a lot of experienced people being kicked out of their jobs. So those people are applying for positions,” he said. “A lot of people are just going straight into the indie space.”
Media Design School tutor and developer Rourke Gray-Mason told RNZ student numbers there had doubled in the past five or six years. One of those students, Joe Rickwood, said he planned to keep building his own game and start his own company rather than hunt for a job.
“The games industry is an industry that you can succeed in, whether you have a job or not,” he told RNZ.
The association also argues that the creative, digital and technology sectors together probably now contribute more to GDP than the primary sector. MBIE told RNZ those sectors have not historically been grouped together, so it could not make a robust estimate. Either way, an industry earning $1 billion a year from overseas players is now large enough to be part of that debate.
Is a $1 billion games industry with fewer jobs a success story or a warning sign? Should the Government keep paying the rebate? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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