Minecraft, It Takes Two and thirteen other games have been added to the Swedish cultural treasures

Dataspelsbranschen, the trade association of the Swedish video game industry, has published a list of fifteen titles important to Swedish culture. As explained on the association’s official website, a jury of experts has selected fifteen of hundreds of locally developed games that will be added to the nation’s cultural canon.

For Dataspellbranschen, “Video games should be considered culture by nowbut they are missing from many cultural policy documents.” This is because “video games have a lasting impact and are created by both men and women, for both adults and young people.”

The list of selected games

So let’s see what games are selected. Many are well known, while others are mostly local.

• Stugan (1978 / 1986) – text adventure game developed by Kimmo Eriksson, Viggo Kann and Olle E Johansson;
• BackPacker (1995) – world travel quiz game made by TATI Mixedia;
• Europa Universalis (2000) – classic grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive, which marked the beginning of one of the company’s main series;
• Ground Control (2000) – real-time strategy game that made Massive Entertainment great;
• Battlefield 1942 (2002) – the first title in the Battlefield series, which set the course for DICE in the years to come;
• Amnesia – The Dark Descent (2010) – horror adventure game developed by indie studio Frictional Games;
• Minecraft (2011) – sandbox game originally created by Swedish programmer and designer Markus Persson and considered the best-selling video game of all time;
• Toca Tea Party (2011) – mobile game for children for iPad developed by Swedish studio Toca Boca;
• Candy Crush Saga (2012) – classic match-3 title from King, which is also one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time;
• Star Stable Online (2012) – Horse-themed MMORPG where players explore the world, go on quests, care for horses, and compete in races;
• Goat Simulator (2014) – game that started as a meme, but eventually turned into one of the most successful projects in Coffee Stain’s portfolio;
• The Battle of Polytopia (2016) – 4X strategy game from indie studio Midjiwan, combining stylized low poly graphics with deep mechanics;
• Budget Cuts (2018) – indie VR stealth game developed by Neat Corporation;
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (2019) – award-winning rhythm game created by indie studio Simogo;
• It Takes Two (2021) – hit cooperative game by Josef Fares and Hazelight Studio with over 16 million copies sold globally.

With this list, Dataspelsbranschen wants video games to be more recognized and accessible. More games will be added to the list in the future. The most obvious candidates are Valheim and Helldivers 2, both developed in Sweden.