CanadaCA
You play a lot of Canadian-made games, but you'd never know it. Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six are built in Quebec, Mass Effect and Dragon Age in Edmonton, EA Sports FC and NHL in Burnaby and, sadly, almost none of it is owned by Canadian companies. Ubisoft answers to Paris, EA to California and, since August 2026, to a Saudi led consortium. The happy exception: Dead by Daylight, which is still independent after ten years. All of it adds 5.1 billion dollars to GDP, a little under half what film and television manage. About 20 million Canadians play, roughly half the country, though that number is a much softer estimate than the studio figures. Canada is better at counting its studios than its players.
Market sizeGDP contribution · 2024
$5.1B
ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study
Identify as gamers
23 million
About 23 million Canadians – roughly 61% of the country’s population – identify as gamers.
Rough scale only. Every market counts players differently, and MENA and IN have no figure.
Photograph Games from Quebec
Shape
The production sector is large and well paid. Canada has 821 active studios employing 34,010 full time equivalents in 2024 at an average salary of 102,000 dollars, with 86 percent full time and an average age of 34.
ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study
Production is export facing. 88 percent of the industry revenue comes from exports.
ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study
Employment concentrates in three provinces. Quebec has 15,220 games industry employees, British Columbia 10,930 and Ontario 6,090, together about 94 percent of the national total.
ESAC and Nordicity industry report release via CNW, trade body commissioned study
Ownership by count skews domestic in Quebec. The Guilde du jeu video du Quebec states that Quebec studios are 86 percent Quebec owned.
Guilde du jeu video du Quebec communique as reproduced by Le Beta-Testeur, games site
Around 20 million Canadians play video games as of 2025, spending roughly eight hours per week playing.
Canada Media Fund Perspectives analysis, public private funding body research
Research note
Two Canadian player counts circulate, so say whose. ESAC's own site says 23 million Canadians are gamers; the Canada Media Fund's synthesis says around 20 million as of 2025, playing roughly eight hours a week. Neither page states its definition of a player, so quote one with its source and do not read the gap as growth.
Where players talk
Conversation runs inside play itself
Games conversation runs substantially inside play itself. In ESAC 2022 player survey, 67 percent of Canadian players say games can introduce them to new friends and relationships, 48 percent spent time with people they would not have otherwise, and 38 percent met a good friend or spouse through games.
Research note
Do not assert a Canadian venue hierarchy. The platform hierarchy of Canadian games conversation could not be sourced: ESAC's Essential Facts 2022 release covers social play but publishes no platform venue shares, the Canada Media Fund synthesis covers playtime by demographic but not venues, and Statistics Canada's cultural indicators do not break out games conversation.
Sources checked and found not to contain the needed data, documented gap
Where the data lives
The seven places to open first. The full list of 21 is at the bottom of the page.
ESAC industry reports
ESAC industry reports. The trade body Nordicity conducted economic studies give studio counts, employment by province, salaries, GDP contribution and export share for the production sector, the standard reference on Canada as a maker of games.
ESAC player research
ESAC player research. The trade body player survey series gives Canadian player counts, demographics, habits and attitudes.
Ontario Creates OIDMTC
Ontario Creates OIDMTC pages. The provincial agency pages give the credit rules, rates and eligibility tracks, and its certification role makes it the reference point for Ontario games production support.
British Columbia IDMTC
British Columbia IDMTC page. The province tax page states the current credit rate and eligibility for interactive digital media, the primary record for British Columbia games production support.
Investissement Québec tax sheets
Investissement Quebec tax measure sheets. The agency fiches detaillees state the terms of Quebec credits including the CDAE, in French, the primary reference for the province at the centre of Canadian games production.
Canada Media Fund research
Canada Media Fund research and Perspectives. The public private fund publishes free games relevant research syntheses with footnoted sources, and its funding programs reach interactive digital media, a federal complement to provincial production data.
The State of Video Gaming (Ball, Epyllion)
The State of Video Gaming, Matthew Ball and Epyllion. A free annual analyst presentation with market sizing, participation and platform charts for most major markets, useful for cross market comparison that no single free source provides. It aggregates many vendors rather than applying one methodology, so treat figures as the analyst assembly they are and cite the underlying source where the deck names one.
People
Communities
No communities are held for Canada yet
Use the games-specific subreddit and official-Discord techniques; the English-language discourse mixes with the US's, and the French-language layer needs French search.
Suggest a community21 curated sources for Canada
Research it yourself
These rows
1 of 1 sources
| Name | What it lets you find out | Type | Cost | Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circana (ex-NPD) | US physical+digital games retail tracking. Monthly US charts via analyst social posts. PlayerPulse, its monthly survey of US players aged 13 and over, gives per-title player demographics including age, and the Player Engagement Tracker counts weekly US players per title; both surface only through analyst posts unless you subscribe. US-centric, and digital coverage depends on publisher participation. Enterprise pricing is custom. Some free press releases. | Sales tracking | Paid |