Denmark has always punched above its weight in the gaming industry. While the size of its market is dwarfed by larger European economies like Germany, France, and the UK, the country has become significantly influential in both producing games and gaming culture.
Around 65% of Danes are now considered gamers. What was once considered the domain of boys and young male adults has now expanded to be more representative of the country as a whole. Women comprise somewhere between 46-48% of the gamer population, and the pastime has been growing steadily among older adults, too.
Gaming is certainly a broad concept. So, to be considered a gamer does not specifically mean you must be sitting in front of an expensive gaming PC playing Call of Duty each day. The concept rides the whole spectrum from professional esports players to players of casual mobile games; from online puzzle games to online casino platforms. Danes are embracing the activity and culture.
Denmark’s influential gaming studios
Denmark, of course, has a strong gaming industry. Several studios operate in the country, including the developers behind the popular Hitman series, IO Interactive. Other prominent studios and publishers include Playdead, which is behind popular games like Limbo and Inside, Ghost Ship Games, which created Deep Rock Galactic, and the team behind Lilly’s Garden, Tactile Games.
A hugely important factor – and perhaps an underrated one – is Denmark’s indie gaming scene. The gaming world is dominated by the big developers in terms of sales, but much of the culture emanates from the indie developer scene. Denmark’s influence is significant here, and it can be witnessed at global gaming festivals. Indeed, look out for up-and-coming indie developers from Denmark like BetaDwarf and Bedtime Digital Games.
In terms of festivals, there are several important ones held in Denmark throughout the year. These include the Copenhagen Games, which is one of Europe’s biggest LAN festivals. Copenhagen also hosts Blast Premier, one of the key international events for CS:GO tournaments. In Odense, you’ll find Net Party Fyn (NPF), a brilliant event that blends esports with social gaming. Finally, Aalborg hosts Game Scope Festivals, a great event to discover indie games and up-and-coming developers.
Home of legendary esports teams
On the professional side, Denmark also punches above its size in esports. CS:GO, Rocket League, Fortnite, and Dota 2 are all represented well by Danish players and Denmark-based teams. CS:GO has a particularly strong showing. Denmark is the home of the near-legendary Astralis team, which specializes in CS:GO among other esports.
It’s worth remembering that a strong gaming sector does not get created in a vacuum. Denmark obviously has a comprehensive internet infrastructure – one of the best in the world – but there is also a recognition of the benefits of gaming, both in terms of economics and social importance. It has allowed gaming to penetrate schools and universities and even be experimented with in terms of solving mental health issues. All of this creates an ecosystem allowing gaming to thrive.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a kind of movement to portray gaming as an existential crisis among young people. It had, for want of a better term, a stigma. At best, it was described as lacking usefulness; at worst, it was seen as a damaging activity. That’s certainly changed in Denmark and beyond.
