Revealed: The best (and worst) paid jobs in UK video games

Marketing, development and sales are by far the best paid sectors in the UK games industry.

That’s according to MCV and Develop’s 2016 Salary Survey, which once again shows that UK games workers earn – on average – 29,000 across all markets.

Unsurprisingly, publishing is the most profitable market to be in, with marketing staff, sales managers and senior PR executives earning north of 30,000 a year. The best-paid non-senior management position is marketing director.

Although starter development roles are low paid (particularly games tester and junior coder), that changes noticeably the higher up the chain they go. A senior games programmer earns, on average, 47,650 a year.

The poorest sectors to work within is retail and the games media. Sales assistants are the lowest paid games industry professionals, earning just above the national minimum wage of 12,200.

Elsewhere in the survey, 56.7 per cent of UK games industry employees work more than 40 hours a week.

Best paid jobs

1. Marketing Director –56,400
2. Lead Coder –47,650
3. Sales Manager –45,000

Worst paid jobs

1. Sales Assistant –12,200
2. QA (Games Tester) –16,700
3. Staff Writer (Media) –18,500