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[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Via Game World Observer

This is reported in a recent Game Developers Conference (GDC) study that included participation from 562 American developers. Below are some more findings from it.

• The highest average annual salaries were found among managers ($160,000) and programmers ($150,000). The lowest were among artists ($124,000).
• Only 15% of surveyed AAA studio employees reported an annual salary below $100,000. In AA studios, 25% of developers earn less than this amount, while in indie teams it's already half.
• 53% of respondents are dissatisfied with their salary size. Specifically, 11% stated they barely make enough for everyday needs, and 6% admitted that their salary does not cover even basic necessities.
• 11% of developers take on side jobs. Most often, they do this for additional income (57% of cases), but other popular reasons include creative fulfillment (52%), career development (31%), and the desire to work on diverse projects (30%).
• Layoffs have affected 24% of developers in the last two years. Of these, half have still not found new employment.
• 80% of developers consider the game industry to be less secure against layoffs compared to many other fields. Nevertheless, 82% of respondents still do not plan to leave it for at least the next five years.
• Support for union creation exists among 64% of developers, but only 9% are members of one.

 

[onQ123]

Why isn't the data from the title in the article at the link?

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Why isn't the data from the title in the article at the link?

You need to submit a form to GDC to access all the salary info including the data point from the headline - https://reg.gdconf.com/2025-salary-report

 

[Miles708]

142,000 dollars a year is an ungodly amount of money. Is life in US extremely costly? I would be able to buy one whole house and a half with just 1 year of work.

 

[Gaiff]

>Way over $100K USD in salaries
>Most are still dissatisfied with their money and can barely eke out a living

Maybe dev studios should move out of coastal Californian cities that charge 5x the rate for rent? One reason budgets have exploded so much is that many big studios have opened or moved to the west coast of the US or other major cities where the cost of living is utterly insane.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Im not defending corporate garbage firings, but it was known that around pandemic, a ton of ppl applied to dev jobs because the pay was huge. It still is, it's a butchers shop in most companies, most dont survive, but those that do, are payed extremely well.

 

[kpopSuperstar]

Half of them are dissatisfied when they earn that much? something doesn't add up here.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

U.S. developer salaries go up, game quality goes down. Yup, checks out.

 

[DaciaJC]

142,000 dollars a year is an ungodly amount of money. Is life in US extremely costly? I would be able to buy one whole house and a half with just 1 year of work.

Depending on where you live in the US, yes.

 

[CoreyFlawless]

>Way over $100K USD in salaries
>Most are still dissatisfied with their money and can barely eke out a living

Maybe dev studios should move out of coastal Californian cities that charge 5x the rate for rent? One reason budgets have exploded so much is that many big studios have opened or moved to the west coast of the US or other major cities where the cost of living is utterly insane.

Yeah I remember when old cliffy was starting and trying his game dev year back. He was getting questions like why was he even starting his in NC. I remember him saying something like, paying someone 100k or more in nc. They would live very comfortably. Unlike anything in California. For some reason I think he was getting shit on for saying something like that too. But that was also like 15 years ago to I believe.

 

[R3TRO]

Studios should leave the west coast.

 

[Jormatar]

Man more than 10K a month. That's like brain surgeon money back here.

 

[Flabagast]

142,000 dollars a year is an ungodly amount of money. Is life in US extremely costly? I would be able to buy one whole house and a half with just 1 year of work.

Since COVID salaries in the US have increased way more than in Europe. Life is costlier but not by that magnitude. US citizens are just richer now.

Agree that the amount is huge. It must be 2 to 3 times more than a salary for comparable devs in Poland for example

 

[adamsapple]

53% of respondents are dissatisfied with their salary size.

6 figure income and more than half are still not satisfied.

The cost of living in the coastal areas must be damn high.

 

[icecold1983]

Yeah thats a lot more than the quality of their work deserves.

 

[LordOcidax]

142,000 dollars a year is an ungodly amount of money. Is life in US extremely costly? I would be able to buy one whole house and a half with just 1 year of work.

The cost of life is excessive in US, specially in the big cities. Thats why i live outside of US while my earnings are in US dollars. Here i can have a good life that only in dreams i can have in US.

 

[BigBeauford]

I've watched enough financial audit to know if you are making almost $150k, I don't give a damn where you live. You are clearly spending your money on bullshit like doordash and other shit if you can't live off that.

 

[Parazels]

$142000 - taxes = ?

 

[splattered]

142,000 dollars a year is an ungodly amount of money. Is life in US extremely costly? I would be able to buy one whole house and a half with just 1 year of work.

Houses here cost like half a million dollars now for a 3 bedroom 2 bath with a smallish lot depending on where you live

 

[Miles708]

Houses here cost like half a million dollars now for a 3 bedroom 2 bath with a smallish lot depending on where you live

Even if that is the case, that's only around 4 years of salary. Of course you also have to live and every other expense, but it still doesn't add up at all.

By comparison I need to straight up avoid eating for 11 full years if I want to hope to buy a house here, and it's going to be an apartment in a condo, no lot no anything.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

6 figure income and more than half are still not satisfied.

The cost of living in the coastal areas must be damn high.

Even a 6 figure income in a coastal California city is not "good" pay

Without looking I think the average home price in that entire state is close to 1 million for a single family home

 

[FoxMcChief]

U.S. developer salaries go up, game quality goes down. Yup, checks out.

The true American way, failing upwards!