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Outsourcing Time Zone Overlap

Outsourcing countries within three hours of your clock share at least six hours of a nine-hour working day, and countries seven or more hours away share two hours or less. As of 29 September 2026, a team in New York working 9:00–18:00 shares 8–9 hours with studios in the United States, Canada and Brazil, 3–7 hours with the United Kingdom, Poland and France, and 2 hours or less with India, Ukraine and Japan. A team in Berlin shares 8–9 hours with studios in the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Poland, 3–7 hours with the United States, India and Canada, and 2 hours or less with Japan, Australia and Colombia. The tool ranks all 49 countries with studios listed here (464 studios) for your own zone and hours.

Your working day
Pick your time zone and the hours your team works.
Your hours (your time)
Studio hours (their time)

09:00–18:00 by default. Many studios shift their day for overseas clients; ask.

11 of 49 countries share at least 4 of your 9 working hours on 29 September 2026. Daylight saving moves some pairs by an hour for part of the year, so the result is for this date.

Outsourcing countries ranked by shared working hours
CountryStudiosTheir clockShared hoursYour timeTheir time
United StatesCalculated on Eastern time. Central time is one hour behind, Mountain two and Pacific three, and many US game studios are on the West Coast.74New York (same time)
9 h
09:00–18:0009:00–18:00
CanadaCalculated on Eastern time (Toronto, Montreal). Vancouver is three hours behind.17Toronto (same time)
9 h
09:00–18:0009:00–18:00
BrazilBrazil has four zones; São Paulo time also covers Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.10São Paulo (+1 h)
8 h
09:00–17:0010:00–18:00
Colombia7Bogotá (−1 h)
8 h
10:00–18:0009:00–17:00
Argentina5Buenos Aires (+1 h)
8 h
09:00–17:0010:00–18:00
Chile2Santiago (+1 h)
8 h
09:00–17:0010:00–18:00
Uruguay2Montevideo (+1 h)
8 h
09:00–17:0010:00–18:00
MexicoMexico has four zones. Mexico City no longer changes clocks; Tijuana follows US daylight saving and is one to two hours behind.5Mexico City (−2 h)
7 h
11:00–18:0009:00–16:00
United Kingdom42London (+5 h)
4 h
09:00–13:0014:00–18:00
PortugalThe Azores are one hour behind the mainland.6Lisbon (+5 h)
4 h
09:00–13:0014:00–18:00
Nigeria1Lagos (+5 h)
4 h
09:00–13:0014:00–18:00
Poland22Warsaw (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
France13Paris (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Germany10Berlin (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
SpainThe Canary Islands are one hour behind the mainland.10Madrid (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Czech Republic9Prague (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Serbia7Belgrade (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Italy5Rome (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Sweden5Stockholm (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Croatia3Zagreb (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Netherlands3Amsterdam (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Denmark2Copenhagen (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
South Africa2Johannesburg (+6 h)
3 h
09:00–12:0015:00–18:00
Ukraine29Kyiv (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Romania9Bucharest (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Bulgaria7Sofia (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Cyprus7Nicosia (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Turkey7Istanbul (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Saudi ArabiaThe working week runs Sunday to Thursday.4Riyadh (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Estonia3Tallinn (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Israel3Tel Aviv (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Belarus2Minsk (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Finland2Helsinki (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Latvia2Riga (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
RussiaRussia spans eleven time zones; Moscow time covers Moscow and St Petersburg.2Moscow (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
Lithuania1Vilnius (+7 h)
2 h
09:00–11:0016:00–18:00
United Arab Emirates5Dubai (+8 h)
1 h
09:00–10:0017:00–18:00
India31Kolkata (+9.5 h)
0 h
——
Japan18Tokyo (+13 h)
0 h
——
Vietnam13Ho Chi Minh City (+11 h)
0 h
——
Malaysia12Kuala Lumpur (+12 h)
0 h
——
Philippines10Manila (+12 h)
0 h
——
China9Shanghai (+12 h)
0 h
——
AustraliaCalculated on Sydney time (also Melbourne). Brisbane skips daylight saving and Perth is two to three hours behind.7Sydney (+14 h)
0 h
——
IndonesiaIndonesia has three zones; Bali and Makassar are one hour ahead of Jakarta.6Jakarta (+11 h)
0 h
——
South Korea6Seoul (+13 h)
0 h
——
Thailand4Bangkok (+11 h)
0 h
——
Singapore2Singapore (+12 h)
0 h
——
Taiwan1Taipei (+12 h)
0 h
——

How it is calculated

Each country is placed in one time zone, the one most of its game industry works in, and the note under a country says when it spans more than one. The tool lays your working day and the studio's working day on the same timeline for today's date, using the IANA time zone rules your own browser uses, and counts the hours they share. A studio day that falls on your next or previous calendar date counts, which is how a California team can overlap with a Tokyo morning.

It assumes both sides work a normal weekday and ignores weekends and public holidays; Saudi Arabia works Sunday to Thursday, so its Friday is lost as well as its hours. Studio counts are the studios this directory lists in each country, the same figures as the statistics page.

For what the overlap means region by region, read the time zone overlap guide; for how teams run a project across a large gap, see outsourcing across time zones.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours of overlap do I need with an outsourcing studio?

Three or four shared hours a day are enough for a daily check-in and same-day answers on iterative work such as art feedback or co-development. With less than two, plan for asynchronous work: a written hand-off at a fixed time and one weekly call, and expect a one-day lag on every review cycle. Fixed-scope work such as a QA pass or an asset batch needs less overlap than embedded development.

Does daylight saving change the overlap?

Yes, by an hour for part of the year, whenever two countries change clocks on different dates or only one of them changes. The United States and Canada switch earlier in spring and later in autumn than Europe, most of Asia, Africa and Latin America never switch, and the southern hemisphere switches in the opposite season. New York and São Paulo, for example, share 8 working hours during the northern summer and 7 in winter. The tool uses each country’s real rules for today’s date, so check it again for the months your project runs.