Cyprus gaming boom raises the stakes as Brussels questions the price of play

Cyprus has built a €3.2 billion gaming industry, but the business of keeping players spending is coming under scrutiny as European regulators investigate major publishers and new research raises concerns about teenagers on the island. Not so long ago, buying a video game was a fairly straightforward affair. You paid for it, played until you finished it and, if you particularly enjoyed yourself, bought another. These days, paying for the game can be just the beginning. There are subscriptions, season passes, virtual currencies and downloadable extras, not to mention an impressive number of opportunities to spend another few euros. For publishers, the attraction is obvious. A customer who buys a game once is valuable. One who keeps playing and spending for years is considerably more so. That business model is now attracting the attention of European consumer authorities, particularly when children are involved. On September 30, 2026, the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network announced coordinated action involving nine video game companies, including publishers behind Minecraft, Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans and Valorant. Regulators are examining whether practices involving virtual currencies and in-game purchases comply with EU consumer law, particularly where the real cost of digital goods may be difficult to understand. The proceedings concern suspected breaches rather than established wrongdoing. For Cyprus, the timing is interesting. According to the industry report published by the Cyprus Game Makers Association (CYGMA) in August, 415 gaming companies were operating from the island in 2025, generating an estimated €3.2bn in revenues. Of that amount, approximately €1.8bn came from mobile games, with PC and console titles contributing another €1.4bn. These figures concern international revenues earned by Cyprus-based companies, rather than spending by Cypriot consumers or the industry’s direct contribution to GDP. One finding is particularly revealing. Games released before 2025 generated around 96 per cent of mobile gaming revenues last year. In other words, much of the money came from games that companies had already developed. Keeping existing players interested has become just as important commercially as attracting new ones. The picture is similar internationally. Market research company Newzoo expects the global gaming industry to generate $213.9bn in 2026, up 6.1 per cent from last year, with 3.7bn players worldwide. Around 1.65bn are expected to spend money on games, representing almost 45 per cent of the global player base. Mobile gaming remains the largest segment, at an estimated $121.1bn, while microtransactions are expected to regain their position as the leading business model in PC gaming. For publishers, keeping a successful game running for years can be extremely lucrative. For consumers, the cost is not always quite so obvious. Take virtual currencies. Instead of paying €5 directly for an item, players may first need to buy coins, gems or points. The arithmetic can be unhelpful. An item costs 700 coins, but the game sells them in bundles of 500 or 1,000. The player buys 1,000, spends 700 and is left with 300. Not enough for the next purchase, naturally. European consumer authorities have questioned such arrangements, particularly when prices are unclear or players are encouraged to buy more virtual currency than they need. The European Commission adopted principles on virtual currencies in March 2025, calling for greater transparency and stronger safeguards for younger consumers. The September investigations followed, adding to regulatory pressure on an industry increasingly dependent on recurring payments. And younger people are particularly active in this market. Eurostat figures show that 63 per cent of EU internet users aged 16 to 24 played or downloaded games in 2024, compared with 45 per cent of those aged 25 to 34. Gaming has become an everyday form of entertainment for younger generations, with subscriptions, digital upgrades and virtual goods increasingly familiar parts of the experience. That does not make gaming harmful. But Cyprus has another reason to pay attention. According to the ESPAD survey, 37 per cent of Cypriot students aged 15 and 16 scored in the high-risk range for self-perceived gaming-related problems in 2024. That was the highest proportion among participating European countries, compared with an average of 22 per cent. Lithuania and the Netherlands followed at 31 per cent. There was another unusual finding. Across participating countries, boys were considerably more likely than girls to score in the high-risk range. In Cyprus, the difference was almost non-existent. Crucially, the findings do not mean that 37 per cent of Cypriot teenagers are addicted to gaming. ESPAD measures signs of gaming-related difficulties, not clinically diagnosed addiction. Playing regularly or buying digital content is not, by itself, evidence of a disorder. Still, the figures raise questions about how younger players interact with games designed to encourage repeated use. Daily rewards, seasonal challenges and time-limited offers can make games more enjoyable, but they can also create pressure to keep returning. A teenager may log in not because they particularly want to play, but because a digital reward disappears at midnight. There is something faintly ridiculous about entertainment becoming another deadline. The commercial pressure is attracting closer scrutiny. European authorities have raised concerns about loot boxes, which offer randomised rewards, and marketing practices that encourage children to purchase digital content or persuade adults to buy it for them. The regulatory debate has widened further in recent months. In August, the Commission designated Roblox as a Very Large Online Platform under the Digital Services Act, bringing the gaming and social platform within stricter EU oversight. September also brought the proposed EU KIDS Act, which seeks stronger protections for children using online services, including video games. The proposal remains subject to the EU legislative process, but its direction is clear: regulators increasingly want companies to consider how their products influence children’s behaviour, rather than leaving the responsibility entirely to parents. For Cyprus-based publishers, this could mean closer examination of pricing systems, virtual currencies, parental controls and the way additional content is promoted. Compliance may involve extra development costs, particularly for smaller studios, although clearer rules could also help build consumer confidence. The issue is relevant to local households too. According to the Statistical Service, 9.4 per cent of people making online purchases during the first quarter of 2025 bought downloadable games, upgrades or virtual items, while 9.5 per cent purchased gaming streaming subscriptions. Those percentages concern online shoppers, not the entire population, but they show that gaming-related spending is already an established part of Cyprus’ digital consumer market. None of this diminishes the industry’s economic importance. Gaming supports investment, skilled employment, technological development and international business activity. For players, it provides entertainment, creativity and communities that reach well beyond national borders. Nor is there anything inherently wrong with publishers earning money from games people enjoy. The difficulty begins when spending becomes unnecessarily complicated or when commercial incentives are difficult to distinguish from the entertainment itself. For an island building a successful international gaming industry while recording comparatively high levels of gaming-related risk among teenagers, both sides of that equation deserve attention. A successful gaming industry should not need players to lose track of their spending to remain successful. And when the customer is a child, making the rules clear ought to be the easiest level of all.