Almost three-quarters of Russian gamers are pirates, reports the newspaper "Izvestia" citing a survey by XYZ School.
Skull and Bones
According to XYZ School, just in the first quarter of 2024, pirates downloaded illegal copies of games worth 118 billion rubles. For comparison, the sales of legal games in Russia for the same period were earlier estimated by experts at 49 billion rubles.
Emma Yusova, the Executive Director of XYZ School, noted that 54% of the pirates downloaded no more than three game copies from January to March. According to her, gamers are now forced to resort to using pirated games due to sanctions. Many titles are not officially sold in Russia, and there are also difficulties accessing international payment systems.
Last year, XYZ School reported that 69% of Russian gamers were pirates. The company reached this conclusion after surveying 1,500 people. The number of participants in the latest XYZ School survey is not specified in the "Izvestia" article.