Governments are paying for games as culture and industry
Public money now decides where many games are made. Tax credits reward the biggest productions and are hard to cut once studios depend on them. Grants are small but reach new teams. The mix a country chooses shapes whose games get made there.
Latest figure · 2024-25
£395 million
UK games tax relief paid for the financial year 2024-25, as HM Revenue and Customs records it by the year each company's accounting period ended. The total includes £116 million claimed under the new 34% expenditure credit. HMRC marks the year provisional and has raised it to allow for claims not yet received.
HM Revenue and Customs, Creative industries statistics (17 September 2026)
Where it stands
Governments pay for games in two ways. Tax credits return a share of what studios spend: 34% in the UK, 30% in France, 25% in British Columbia. In the UK, claims over £500,000 took 82% of relief in 2024-25. Grants pay small teams up front: São Paulo offers R$300,000 for a prototype, and Britain doubled its Games Fund in 2026. Germany and India have added money since 2020, and Brazil opened its culture funding to games in 2024.
Relief paid to games companies rose every year, from £63 million in 2014-15 to £395 million in 2024-25, the first year with large claims under the new 34% credit.
SourceHM Revenue and Customs, Creative industries statistics (17 September 2026)
| Year | UK games tax relief paid each financial year, £ millions |
|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 63 |
| 2015-16 | 90 |
| 2016-17 | 101 |
| 2017-18 | 124 |
| 2018-19 | 153 |
| 2019-20 | 192 |
| 2020-21 | 217 |
| 2021-22 | 280 |
| 2022-23 | 322 |
| 2023-24 | 336 |
| 2024-25 | 395 |
Timeline
1996
Quebec creates a tax credit for multimedia studios
After a subsidy deal that brought Ubisoft to Montreal drew protests of favoritism from other companies, Quebec creates a refundable tax credit for multimedia titles open to all. It pays up to 37.5% of eligible wages for a title available in French and up to 30% for one that is not.
2017
France raises its games tax credit to 30%
A reform that takes effect on 10 August 2017 raises France's tax credit for making games from 20% to 30% of eligible spending and doubles the yearly cap per company from €3 million to €6 million. The credit comes from a 2007 law.
2022
Saudi Arabia's state games company plans to invest $38 billion
Savvy Games Group, owned by Saudi Arabia's sovereign Public Investment Fund, announces a plan to invest 142 billion riyals, about $38 billion. It aims for 250 games companies in the kingdom, 39,000 jobs and a games sector adding 50 billion riyals to GDP by 2030.
2024
Britain replaces its games tax relief with a 34% credit
The Video Games Expenditure Credit replaces Video Games Tax Relief from 1 January 2024. It pays 34% of qualifying spending, and a game must pass a cultural test run by the British Film Institute to count as British. The old relief ends on 1 April 2027.
British Film Institute, UK creative industry expenditure credits (read 30 September 2026)
Brazil's games law opens its culture funding to games
Law 14.852, the Marco Legal dos Games (games legal framework), signed on 3 May 2024, makes game development a cultural segment under the Lei Rouanet, Brazil's culture incentive law. It also opens the Lei do Audiovisual, the country's film incentive law, to game studios.
2025
India opens a national institute for games with 400 crore rupees
The first campus of the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, the national center of excellence for animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and extended reality, opens in Mumbai on 18 July 2025 with an initial budget of 400 crore rupees. In September, by the central government's account, Maharashtra approves a state policy for the same sectors with a financial plan of 3,268 crore rupees.
Press Information Bureau, Powering Creative Technology (18 November 2025)
British Columbia raises its games credit to 25%
British Columbia makes its interactive digital media tax credit permanent and raises it from 17.5% to 25% of wages from 1 September 2025. The province lists Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, Take-Two and CD Projekt Red among the large developers working there, and EA's studios welcome the change.
Germany reopens its games fund and quadruples the largest grant
After almost two years in which Germany's federal games fund was halted or restricted, the research ministry, in charge since May 2025, reopens it from 1 August to projects of any length and quadruples the largest grant to €8 million. The government plans €88 million for 2025 and about €125 million for 2026.
2026
China's five-year plan names online games in its culture and export goals
The outline of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, its economic roadmap for 2026 to 2030, calls for guiding and regulating the 'healthy development' of online games in its chapter on the culture industry. Another chapter asks for quality online games to be taken overseas, alongside online literature, film and animation.
Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (China), via Xinhua (13 March 2026)
Brazil caps a game's development project at R$400,000
Brazil's Ministry of Culture sets new rules for projects raising money under the Lei Rouanet. A game project may seek up to R$1.5 million, and a project to develop a game up to R$400,000.
Normative Instruction 29, Ministry of Culture (Brazil) (29 January 2026)
São Paulo draws 217 applications for 20 game grants
São Paulo state's 2026 games call, run through its culture program ProAC, offers R$6 million: R$300,000 each to ten teams building a game up to a playable prototype and to ten finishing and publishing one. It draws 217 applications, 174 of them for development.
Britain doubles its grant fund for small studios
The UK government puts £28.5 million into the UK Games Fund, double its previous support, with grants of up to £20,000 for new companies, up to £100,000 for prototypes and up to £250,000 to finish and scale a game.
Consequences
012024
Countries compete on how much they pay
Germany's games trade body, game, says the federal fund's €50 million came to less than a quarter of the average per head in the countries a study it commissioned from Nordicity compared, and that Canada, France and the UK use tax credits that cannot run out as a fund can. It credits the fund with a 52% rise in the number of games companies in Germany from 2020 to 2024.
game, annual report of the German games industry 2024 (12 August 2024)
022025
Most of Britain's games relief goes to the biggest claims
Claims over £500,000 took 82% of the £395 million of games relief HM Revenue and Customs paid for 2024-25. The 45 claims over £2 million took £219 million between them. The 260 claims under £5,000 shared less than £1 million.
HM Revenue and Customs, Creative industries statistics (17 September 2026)
032025
In Italy, games take a small share of a large credit
Games received €10.9 million of Italy's audiovisual production tax credit in 2025, 2.7% of the total, up from €7.6 million in 2024. The culture ministry's evaluation finds the credit is the main public support games studios can actually reach, but that it does less to build up the studios' own capital than to cover production costs.
042026
Britain's own evaluation finds its small grants pay back
An evaluation by Alma Economics for the culture department, which funds the program, estimates that the UK Games Fund's Content Fund, which gave 35 companies grants of £50,000 to £150,000 from 2023, will return benefits of about 5.1 times its cost. The authors call the estimate uncertain because many of the games have only begun to sell. The department cites it as a reason for the £30 million Games Growth Package.
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Alma Economics (16 July 2026)
Objections
Counterpoint2014
Once studios depend on a credit, it is hard to cut
Quebec tried to cut its multimedia credit by 20% in 2014 to balance its budget, and backed down after studios, Ubisoft among them, threatened to leave. Critics cited by NPR say the credit mainly helps foreign companies that open satellite offices. Quebec's government says the sector brings in more tax than the credit costs.
Counterpoint2019
A global hit can pass as culturally British
In 2019 the tax think tank TaxWatch found that Rockstar North, the Edinburgh studio behind Grand Theft Auto, had claimed about £42 million, 19% of all UK games relief paid until then, while paying no UK corporation tax for nearly a decade. Its games qualified as culturally British through the BFI's test.
Counterpoint2026
Germany cannot give its fund away
By the opening of gamescom in August 2026, Germany's fund had applications for only about €40 million of the €120 million available. GamesWirtschaft reports that the country lacks large studios able to take on substantial sums. The finance minister brought no plan for the games tax break the coalition had promised.
Counterpoint2026
Culture tests fit games badly
Games studios told Italy's evaluators that the credit's cultural requirements and procedures do not always fit how games are made or how long they take. Most Italian studios are small or micro companies, and for them even a procedure judged not especially heavy is a real burden.
What to watch
2027
Brazil's rules for public money in games
The first half of 2027, when ANCINE, Brazil's film agency, expects to finish rules for how publicly financed games projects are approved, run and accounted for. Its agenda says the lack of such rules limits games' access to the support that already exists.
2027
Germany's promised games tax break
Gamescom in August 2027, where GamesWirtschaft expects the games tax break Germany's coalition promised to come back up. The ministers plan €120 million for the fund in the 2027 budget, and the research minister wants the largest grant raised from €8 million to €20 million, which needs talks with the EU.
2027
Britain's old games relief closes
1 April 2027, when every UK game must claim the 34% expenditure credit and the old relief closes. HM Revenue and Customs plans its next figures for summer 2027, which will add the 2025-26 year to this chart.
HM Revenue and Customs, Creative industries statistics (17 September 2026)
Further reading
- ReportingHow subsidies helped Montreal become "the Hollywood of video games"npr.org
- DataCreative industries statistics commentary: September 2026gov.uk
- ResearchEvaluation of the UK Games Fund: Final reportgov.uk
Where to follow it HM Revenue and Customs creative industries statistics each September, the CNC, GamesWirtschaft on German games funding, ANCINE's regulatory agenda, Ukie and TIGA
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