Australia’s screen and games sector contributed AUD11.1 billion ($7.9 billion) to the economy in gross value added in fiscal year 2023/24 and directly employed 68,844 people in FY 2024/25, according to Screen Currency 2026, a landmark Screen Australia study. The report singles out “Bluey” as the country’s most effective cultural export, citing the children’s series as the most-streamed show in the U.S. in 2025 and the most recognized Australian title among international survey respondents. Of the total GVA, $10.8 billion ($7.7 billion) came from screen and $317 million ($225 million) from games.
Employment split similarly, with 66,080 jobs in screen and 2,764 in digital games development, a sector the report describes as Australia’s fastest-growing, with growth rates outpacing the rest of the industry. Exports reached AUD1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) in FY 2023/24, made up of $1.3 billion ($923 million) in screen exports and $323 million ($229 million) in games exports. Games exports climbed at a 15.4% average annual clip between 2016/17 and 2023/24 – more than three times the pace of screen exports, which grew at 4.7% annually since 2008/09 – and now make up roughly a fifth of the sector’s total export earnings.
After a decline, royalty exports rebounded to AUD415 million ($295 million) in FY 2024/25. Australia had 188 registered digital games businesses in FY 2021/22, growing at a 15.3% average annual clip since 2015/16, according to the report. But IP ownership across the sector remains uneven: 45% of games businesses retain full rights to their titles at first release, 15% hold partial rights and 40% own none at all.
Industry stakeholders cautioned against reading too much into individual breakout hits. One games executive interviewed for the study said titles like “Untitled Goose Game,” “Unpacking” and “Hollow Knight: Silksong” tend to come from small teams that found a niche audience, adding that “success depends on a multitude of factors that are often just not in the control of game makers.” Despite the sector’s scale, the report found a gap between how much Australians value local content and how much of it they actually consume. 84% of Australians rated local screen content as important to have access to, and 75% want more of it, but only 36% consider it easy to find, and nearly two-thirds watch it for under 30% of their total viewing time. The report also ties local content to national identity.
More than three in four Australians (77%) say quality local content leaves them feeling proud to be Australian, and 78% say it contributes to a distinctive Australian identity. Similarly, 78% say it helps preserve and share Australian culture, and 71% say it connects them to the country’s past and cultural heritage. Minister for the Arts Tony Burke tied the findings to government policy on local content quotas.
When Screen Australia tested recognition of 11 recent Australian titles internationally, the U.K. and New Zealand topped the list at 88% apiece, followed by India at 80%, the U.S. at 67%, China at 65%, Canada at 61%, Singapore at 60% and Germany at 46%. Across the eight international markets surveyed, half of respondents said Australian film and TV had made them more interested in visiting the country, with India showing the strongest lift at 51%, followed by China at 30% and Singapore at 27%. Screen Australia CEO Deirdre Brennan said the findings point to a sector at an inflection point.
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