Poland’s game exports exceeded 1.2 billion euros in 2023. Czechia’s film and TV production pumped over 600 million euros into the economy. The creative sector in the region is booming, and with it, global recognition.
Ask a teenage gamer in California what they know about Poland, and odds are they’ll mention Geralt of Rivia before Lech Wałęsa.
The monster-hunting antihero of The Witcher franchise, born from Polish fantasy novels and brought to life by Warsaw-based game studio CD Projekt, has done more for Poland’s global image than any trade mission. He’s also the face of a much bigger story: Central and Eastern Europe’s creative economy is booming, and it’s not just about entertainment—it’s fast becoming a serious business.
At its core, the creative economy encompasses the commercial value generated by culture, the arts, and digital creativity. It is the fusion of imagination and monetisation—where code meets choreography, and aesthetics meet analytics. Globally, it accounts for over three per cent of GDP and nearly 30 million jobs, according to UNESCO.
Central and Eastern Europe, with its deep cultural reservoirs, multilingual talent, and competitive costs, is finally tapping into this potential with intent.
Poland’s video game industry is the poster child. CD Projekt, which besides The Witcher also authored Cyberpunk 2077, has become a global brand, turning Polish folklore and dystopian futures into billion-euro franchises. But it’s not alone. A constellation of studios across Kraków, Wrocław, and Gdańsk now exports games to global platforms, making Poland one of Europe’s largest exporters of video games.
Further south, Czechia continues to cement its role as Central Europe’s Hollywood. With generous tax incentives and crews that work to LA standards at Prague prices, the country has hosted everything from Mission: Impossible to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Czech studios are increasingly going beyond line production to developing their own IP, while Brno’s animation scene quietly builds a reputation for artistic flair.
The Baltics, meanwhile, are reinventing creativity through a start-up lens. Estonia’s digital-first mindset has bred a new generation of design-led tech ventures such as Fleep, a streamlined team messaging app, and Woola, which uses discarded wool to create protective packaging that can replace plastic bubble wrap.
Latvia’s capital Riga has become a hub for music-tech start-ups like Sonarworks, whose audio calibration tools are used by Grammy-winning producers, and Gamechanger Audio, whose effects pedals are coveted by experimental musicians worldwide.
Lithuania’s Vilnius, meanwhile, is home to Vinted, Europe’s largest online marketplace for second-hand fashion, and PVcase, a solar engineering software firm with a design-forward ethos—proof that even green tech can have a creative edge.
Soft power
The numbers tell a compelling story. The creative sectors in Central and Eastern Europe already employ hundreds of thousands of people and contribute significantly to exports.
Poland’s game exports exceeded 1.2 billion euros in 2023. Czechia’s film and TV production pumped over 600 million euros into the economy. In the Baltics, creative industries account for over five per cent of GDP—surpassing agriculture in both output and ambition. These industries also do something intangible but vital: they shape national brands and serve as an important tool of soft power. Culture, it turns out, scales.
Governments and the EU are finally catching up. Creative Europe, the EU’s cultural funding programme, has funnelled millions into the region’s cultural entrepreneurs.
National programmes have sprung up too—from Estonia’s Creative Incubator to Slovakia’s Audiovisual Fund. Cities such as Tartu, Kaunas and Novi Sad have used their European Capital of Culture designation as a springboard for long-term creative infrastructure.
Creative industry as a core asset
But challenges remain. Intellectual property protection is still patchy, discouraging investment and allowing piracy to nibble at the margins. Access to finance is uneven—few local banks understand how to value a screenplay or a game engine.
Many regions meanwhile lack the physical infrastructure—sound stages, co-working hubs, post-production suites—to scale operations. Talent is abundant but often migrates westward in search of better opportunities.
If C-level executives are serious about diversifying their growth bets, the creative economy deserves a hard look. It offers a rare combination of resilience, scalability, and reputational upside.
What’s needed now is a concerted push to strengthen IP regimes, build creative clusters, and integrate cultural industries into national economic strategies—not as window dressing, but as core assets.
The East’s creative spark is real. It’s time the suits caught up with the storytellers.
Photo: The Witcher official Facebook page.
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