Game Industry Salary Analysis: Programmers Earn 24% Less Than Comparable IT Roles

Pascal Wagner

7h ago· 1 min readenInsight

38/100

Stale

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Sat out too long. The crust has gone leathery.

Score38TypeanalysisSentimentnegative

Summary

This article analyzes salary comparisons in the games industry across Western markets (US, EU, Non-EU Europe, Germany), highlighting that game programmers earn significantly less than comparable IT roles. A 2024 GamesMarkt survey found German game programmers earned about 24% less than similar positions in the broader IT industry. The article also incorporates layoff data to provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of the games industry and addresses the financial realities of working in game development.

Key quotes

· 3 pulled

In a 2024 survey GamesMarkt conducted on the German salary situation of game programmers, we found that game programmers earned around 24% less than what a salary survey by Consulting Partners found for comparable positions in the overall IT industry in Germany.

Making your dream game can be rewarding in its own way, but let's be honest: Work must pay the bills.

The games industry has historically been a place where salaries have been contested quite heavily, because other industries looking for comparable skillsets often featured higher wages.

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We aggregated data from US, EU, Non-EU Europe and Germany to provide salary comparisons over all Western markets. With additional layoff data, the comparison paints a picture of the state of games.