A report shows the current state of the gaming industry in Europe: How much do you earn in gaming development? We see median salaries for various jobs in the industry. At the top of the food chain are experienced managers and analysts, at the bottom are the poor game testers. The type of game you develop also plays a role in salary. If you love fighting games, you should probably learn to like canned ravioli too.
Where do the numbers come from? It is an annual survey conducted by the recruiting agency Values Value and a career platform Ingame-Job.
The survey is evaluated and graphically prepared. The report can be downloaded free of charge (via a boost.ingamejob).
The survey ran from March to June 2024 and 1,832 people responded.
How much do you earn in Europe? The statistics show 8 different professional fields. The annual incomes are gross and the “median income” is given: In contrast to the average, this is considered to be less susceptible to exceptions at the upper or lower end of the spectrum.
The survey distinguishes between EU countries (including Great Britain and Switzerland) and non-EU countries where salaries are significantly lower.
This is how much people in top positions in a company earn
The statistics show: Top management earns the most money at around €84,000. Even as an analyst, programmer and project manager you can still do well in the EU zone with over €60,000. But this is about the “top level” jobs, so even the game tester, who earns around €35,000 a year, is already a team lead or at least very experienced.
This is how much people earn in “regular” jobs
What do you see at mid-level? In the “mid-level” area, where you usually arrive after 2 or 3 years, salaries are significantly lower.
There are around 37,000 “HR employees” in the EU. A game designer even a little below that. At around €20,000, artists and QA testers are already in the range where money is quite tight.
This is what beginners deserve: Here, as in every area, the following applies: calculated over the year, relatively little goes around. A game designer costs €19,368 in the EU and even €6,756 outside the EU.
The more casual a game is, the less you pay
Does it matter which game I’m working on? Yes, actually. The more “casual-friendly” the game is, the less money you earn on average in your job.
An employee working on a hardcore game earns around €18,000 more per year than a worker working on a game for children. Indie studios naturally pay the worst, even if they sometimes have a hit.
The genre also determines the salary
Which genre pays the best and which pays the worst? Just as it matters whether you work in core gaming or at an indie studio, genre also has an impact on salary.
The cliché that typical mobile games pay well is actually true. Farm and city builders are relatively high, as are match-3 games. These are all typical mobile games.
By the way, the highest-paying genre is real-time strategy, followed by MMOs. By the way, “MMORPG”s are only in the middle range.
The least money comes when you work on visual novels or fighting games.
How have salaries developed? As Tanja Laktionova, the founder of Values Value, reports, some salaries have decreased significantly, especially for experienced employees in the areas of HR and game testing. This is because companies here in particular make savings when things are not going well, and these positions are increasingly affected by layoffs.
By the way, the job isn’t all that secure. Last year, according to the survey, 21% of participants were fired. There’s been a lot of dark news from the gaming industry lately: gaming publisher behind great game on Steam is closing 2 days before Christmas: fire everyone