Salaries of game developers decreased after stabilization

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GameDev

GameDev DOU has published analytics on salaries in the Ukrainian game development industry and a portrait of a game development specialist and analyzed what has changed over the past six months.

The material is based on the results of the traditional DOU salary survey held in June. It was attended by 948 GameDev specialists who live in Ukraine or temporarily went abroad due to the full-scale war and plan to return.

92% of Ukrainian IT professionals involved in game development now live in Ukraine. Another 8% are currently abroad but plan to return. Almost half of them – 44% – live in Kyiv. In other cities, there are significantly fewer GameDev specialists: 14% in Lviv, 7% in Dnipro, 5% in Kharkiv, and 4% in Odesa.

948 GameDev specialists who live in Ukraine or temporarily went abroad

Some interesting facts

Today, the average Ukrainian game developer looks like this: A 28-year-old guy who donates $150 a month to the Armed Forces and is employed as a sole proprietor. Of course, we are generalizing.

GameDev currently employs 27% women, the same as six months ago.

Developers make up 30% of the IT staff at GameDev. Testers are in second place (22%), and designers and artists are in third place (16%). Game designers make up 7% of specialists. Another 6% are project managers, and 5% are HR, recruiting, and training specialists.

94% of the surveyed specialists are currently working, another 4% have lost their jobs and are looking for a new one, and 0.4% are on a break or unpaid vacation.

58% of game developers work for product companies, and about 30% work for outsourcing companies.

Most game developers are satisfied with their work: 39% consider their work interesting, and another 21% consider it very interesting. Only 11% said their work is not interesting.

47% of game developers are preparing for mobilization or emergencies.

The median salary of game developers, after a stable figure in 2022, has decreased by $50 to $1950 over the past six months.

The median salary of game developers, after a stable figure in 2022, has decreased by $50 to $1950 over the past six months.

Median salaries

The median salary of game developers, after a stable figure in 2022, has decreased by $50 to $1950 over the past six months.

Developers (i.e., programmers) have the highest salaries in the game industry. Although they are somewhat lower than in other areas of IT, the biggest difference is in the salaries of experienced Middle ($2300 in game development vs. $2600 in IT in general) and Senior ($4725 vs. $4900) specialists. Salaries of Junior level beginners in game development are the same as in IT in general – $1000.

On the contrary, the median salaries of marketing and PR specialists, as well as HR, recruiting, and training specialists, are slightly higher in gaming than in other IT areas. The median salary is $1620 compared to $1500 in IT in general.

The median salary of designers/artists in game development has decreased by $100 to $1500 over six months.

Testers in game development are one of the lowest paid specializations (median salary $1300), primarily due to the high share of newcomers and manual QA specialists.

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