Unity Technologies has built the game engine that powers a huge chunk of the gaming industry. Founded in Copenhagen in 2004 by David Helgason, Joachim Ante, and Nicholas Francis, the company moved to San Francisco and grew into one of the two dominant game development platforms, alongside Unreal Engine.
Unity went public on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2020, raising $1.3 billion in one of the year’s biggest tech IPOs. As of 2023, the engine is used to create over 50% of all mobile games and roughly 60% of all AR and VR content. Games made with Unity include Pokemon Go, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Cities: Skylines, and thousands of indie titles.
The engine’s appeal has always been its accessibility. It supports 2D and 3D development, exports to over 20 platforms (including iOS, Android, PC, consoles, and web), and has a massive Asset Store where developers buy and sell pre-made resources. The free Personal tier has made it the default starting point for new game developers.
In 2023, Unity faced significant backlash after announcing a per-install runtime fee that would have charged developers each time their game was installed. After intense community pushback, CEO John Riccitiello resigned, and the company walked back most of the policy under new leadership.
Beyond gaming, Unity has expanded into industries like film production (real-time virtual sets), automotive design, architecture visualization, and digital twins for manufacturing. The company acquired Weta Digital’s tools division from Peter Jackson’s VFX studio in 2021 for $1.6 billion, signaling serious ambitions in visual effects.
