Pakistan already exports over $150 million a year in games and animation work. What it lacks is not capability — it is a credible, independent way to demonstrate that capability to people holding capital.
Every number on this page is attributed and dated. Where a figure comes from a projection rather than a completed year, it says so.
Sources checked 5 Aug 2026 · FY22–23 is the most recent year P@SHA has published
Annual revenue of Pakistan's animation, graphics and games sector
Of that revenue earned as IT exports — work sold abroad
Professionals employed across 257 companies in the sector
Total investment raised across the sector — the constraint this page is about
Pakistan's games and animation sector employs over 12,000 professionals across 257 companies and earned $157.9 million in exports in FY22–23. Studios in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad ship on Unity and Unreal for international clients today. This is not a market waiting to be created — it is one already operating, largely on service work for foreign buyers.
Pakistani studios compete for international work against Eastern European and Indian outsourcing brands that carry far denser reputational evidence — named enterprise clients, public review histories, recognisable case studies. The work can be equivalent; the proof of it is not. An investor comparing two studios on paper has no reliable way to tell a disciplined team from a risky one.
Without a credible signal of production quality, capital defaults to no. Studios then fund payroll from service contracts rather than building original IP — the higher-value work that would let them own what they make. It is a self-reinforcing loop: no proof, no capital; no capital, no IP; no IP, nothing to prove.
The constraint is not the number of engineers. It is the absence of an independent, production-grounded assessment that an outside investor will actually trust. That is the gap DGV was built to close — and closing it is worth more to this industry than another training programme.
A thesis that lists only upside is a pitch, not an analysis. If we are asking investors to trust our assessment of a studio, we have to be equally straight about the market that studio operates in.
Pakistan produces over 25,000 IT graduates a year, but industry bodies report that only around 10% are considered employable by top-tier firms without further training. Depth of senior talent is real; the pipeline beneath it is uneven.
Local teams frequently demonstrate strong technical competence and fall short in the final stretch — lighting, environment art, visual storytelling. It is the difference between a game that works and one that competes, and it is why some capable studios get dismissed as low-budget.
The local funding environment is shallow, and cross-border payment and publishing friction adds overhead that studios in comparable markets do not carry.
Public bodies have put real money and infrastructure behind this sector. We are not affiliated with any of them — we list them because an investor assessing the market should know they exist.
Centres of Excellence in Gaming and Animation in Karachi and Lahore, running incubation sprints aimed at international publishing deals.
Pakistan Software Export Board — export promotion, international market presence, and sector training initiatives.
The Ministry of IT & Telecom's R&D fund, backing incubation centres and a national virtual production stage.
We audit studios against a four-lens production standard and publish what we find. That is how the proof gets built — one assessment at a time.