A NEW study revealed that Game Developers, Marketing Managers and QA Testers are the professions in the video games industry earning the highest salaries.
The study, conducted by online gaming platform Solitaired, analysed Indeed UK data for the different video games roles and ranked them according to the average annual salary for each role in the UK.
The study also explored salaries for jobs in the video games industry in different UK cities and ranked them to find out what cities pay the most in the gaming sector. The findings show that Glasgow is the second UK city with the highest salary for 3D artists and the fifth one for game developers.
According to results, the 14 highest-paid video games jobs in the UK are:
| Ranking | Job | Salary (£) |
| 1 | Game Developer | 43,469 |
| 2 | Marketing Manager | 38,278 |
| 3 | QA tester | 35,919 |
| 4 | 3D Artist | 35,828 |
| 5 | Game Producer | 33,796 |
| 6 | 2D Animator | 33,438 |
| 7 | Game designer | 31,584 |
| 8 | Writer | 31,356 |
| 9 | 3D Animator | 30,721 |
| 10 | Audio engineer | 29,885 |
| 11 | Market Researcher | 28,685 |
| 12 | Translator | 28,446 |
| 13 | Sales Representatives | 26,559 |
| 14 | IT technical support officer | 23,537 |
According to the results of the study, Game Developers are the highest-paid job in the UK, with an average yearly salary of £43,469.
Game Developers’ main task is to take video games designers’ ideas and concepts and write the code for the game to suit an array of different formats, such as consoles, PCs and mobiles.
The top five cities in the UK to be a Game Developer, and their respective average annual salaries, are:
| Rank | City | Annual salary (£) |
| 1 | London | 59,940 |
| 2 | Birmingham | 46,897 |
| 3 | Manchester | 46,159 |
| 4 | Leeds | 44,524 |
| 5 | Glasgow | 39,948 |
The findings show that Marketing Managers are the second most profitable profession in the video game sector in the UK, earning an average annual salary of £38,278.
Taking care of the promotional aspects of the game, Marketing Managers are developing and implementing marketing strategies to meet consumer need — and maximize the companies’ financial profits.
The top five cities in the UK to be a Marketing Manager are:
| Rank | City | Annual Salary (£) |
| 1 | London | 43,178 |
| 2 | Medway | 40,000 |
| 3 | Nottingham | 39,125 |
| 4 | Manchester | 37,745 |
| 5 | Portsmouth | 36,823 |
With an average yearly salary of £35,919, Video Games QA Testers are the third best paid video game job in the UK. QA Testers set up plans to test video games software, finding and fixing bugs and generally improving the service.
According to the findings, the top five cities that offer the highest salaries to QA Testers are:
| Rank | City | Annual Salary (£) |
| 1 | Cambridge | 46,976 |
| 2 | London | 42,030 |
| 3 | Manchester | 34,241 |
| 4 | Bristol | 34,107 |
| 5 | Cardiff | 34,040 |
Earning an average of £35,828 a year, 3D artists come fourth in the ranking, and are responsible for creating three-dimensional animations and visual effects. Being one of the most common roles nowadays in films and games production, 3D artists are the fourth most paid job in the UK.
The UK cities that pay their 3D artists the most are:
| Rank | City | Salary |
| 1 | London | 43,616 |
| 2 | Glasgow | 40,004 |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 35,436 |
| 4 | Manchester | 31,100 |
| 5 | Leicester | 30,883 |
With an average salary of £33,796, video games producers are the fifth highest paid professionals in the industry, according to the findings. Game producers ensure that the whole development of a game is actually implemented and achieved.
The top 5 UK cities to be a Video Game Producer are:
| Rank | City | Salary |
| 1 | Liverpool | 38,802 |
| 2 | London | 36,170 |
| 3 | Bristol | 35,632 |
| 4 | Manchester | 34,271 |
| 5 | Birmingham | 33,628 |
The research was conducted by solitaired.com, a free, browser-based card game platform with more than 500 games available to play.
