Screen Currency 2026

Industry Insights

A world-class creative industry

The Australian screen and games sector is characterised by high levels of creative and technical skill, and significant capital investment. High levels of activity across both domestic and international markets are common, and Australian screen and games capability is widely regarded as internationally competitive, underpinning strong demand for Australian skills, services and content. The industry is shaped by an interplay of commercial, cultural and policy settings. It supports skilled employment, drives technology development and adoption, and attracts both local and international investment. The opportunity ahead is not only to continue creating great content, but to capture more of the long-term value it generates.

Future success lies in building on strong foundations

Screen Currency points to growing structural and commercial pressures across both screen and games. High levels of activity and production coexist with increasing uncertainty around business sustainability, value capture, workforce stability and the impacts of generative AI. The sector will need to further adapt to new business models and drive development of high-quality IP to ensure emerging companies are sustainable over the long-term.

8,393

small and medium-sized screen creation and production businesses operate across Australia

63%

of screen businesses have been operating for more than 10 years

73%

of screen industry workers hold a bachelor's degree or higher qualification

15.3%

average annual growth in digital games businesses since 2015/16

Key takeaways

45% of screen businesses report no ownership of rights at first commercial release.

Australian creators and businesses continue to produce highly regarded content, but long-term value is increasingly controlled by those who own intellectual property, audience data and distribution channels. As global platforms expand their influence, it can be harder for Australian businesses to convert creative success into ongoing revenue and sustainable growth.

$11.1 billion in gross value added by screen and games activity.

The industry is a major part of Australia’s creative economy, supporting employment, investment and innovation across the country. While economic activity remains substantial, growth has lagged behind the broader Australian economy, reducing the sector’s share of overall economic output.

Games employment has grown by 15.1% annually since 2015/16 while some traditional screen sectors face increasing pressure.

Not all parts of the industry are experiencing the same outcomes. Export-oriented games studios, foreign production and production services are generating growth, while many businesses focused on Australian content face tighter margins, fewer commissioning opportunities and greater commercial uncertainty.

8,393 screen creation and production businesses operate across Australia.

The industry is built on a large and highly fragmented network of small and medium-sized businesses. These businesses drive creativity, innovation and flexibility, but often face challenges scaling operations, accessing capital and retaining long-term financial security.

Only 26% of IP earnings come from existing IP owned by screen businesses.

Long-term value is increasingly determined by ownership of IP rather than production activity alone. Many businesses rely on project-based work or IP owned by others, limiting their ability to build recurring revenue streams and capture the full value generated by their creative work.

73% of screen workers hold a bachelor’s degree or higher qualification.

Australia’s screen and games workforce is highly educated and internationally regarded. However, project-based employment, freelance work and multiple job-holding create challenges for workforce stability, skills retention and long-term career development.

Approaches should keep pace with the platform-led audience and revenue models that are growing in influence.

Policy and funding approaches built around earlier production-and-release models can struggle to target what now drives long-term sustainability: rights and IP outcomes, distribution leverage, access to audience data and how value is share through platforms. This can leave a gap between the areas government can most readily support and the factors that most affect where a business can build repeatable income and retain value.

This has structural implications for IP, the workforce and value realisation that are moving faster than industry dialogue and policy.

While adoption is uneven and often undisclosed, AI has the potential to compress development timelines, merge stages of the value chain and create new forms of content at scale. Its use raises significant unresolved questions around IP ownership, copyright protection, workforce displacement and the use of creative works to train models. The underlying tensions between creative opportunity, IP protection, workforce sustainability and commercial exploitation are structural and will require ongoing policy attention as AI and its applications continue to evolve.