The Gaming Industry 2021: Hiring Facts, Stats, and Trends

Contrary to the pandemic-driven slump businesses faced, the gaming industry saw 55% of Americans resort to gaming. The reason? To relieve stress and resort to entertainment during the lockdowns.

A Morgan Stanley report showed how 2020 alone experienced user growth amount to what the previous 4 years collectively did. Nearly 50 million new users engaged despite the average being 11 million users a year. Thanks to such a steep rise, the net market revenue generated by the gaming industry crossed $177 billion in 2020.

With such a growing potential, it becomes essential to comprehend the gaming industry’s hiring trends, focusing on the evolution of the job market.

No Shortage of Jobs, But a Shortage of Talent

Gaming companies in the past have had a plethora of candidates swarming to apply for jobs. However, the tables have turned. Recruiters from the gaming industry are indulging in fierce competition to attract the best talents from the industry. Companies are resorting to distinctive ways to lure the human resources they need.

Even the unemployment rate is nearing itself zero for candidates possessing skills like game development, designing, UX writing, and coding. The vast number of job opportunities in the gaming market has given rise to innovative recruitment and engagement tactics, including freelance work, to get the ball rolling. For example, Roblox facilitates users with a platform to develop mini-games, create gaming scenarios, leverage high-quality graphics, and deploy genre-specific games.

The Changing Trends, the Trending Changes.

The past year has seen drastic changes happening in the gaming industry with regard to recruitments. The job vacancies have been reduced by 3% for developers and 4% for designers. However, on the contrastingly brighter side, job seekers have increased. 

As per a survey, the job market is expecting a 9.3% rise from 2016 to 2026 – a record best for the decade. In the midst of this decade, Gamesmith found that jobs such as level designers, data geniuses, and leading developers form 16% of the vacancies available.

As per the latest 2021 report pertaining to the gaming industry:

  • There are currently 273,379 Employees in the US.
  • This year has seen an Employment Growth of 9.2%.

The Skills Recruiters Seek and the Ones They Should.

In the past, companies from the gaming industry sought candidates with a flair for gaming, no matter for which job roles. But, judging the candidates based on their gaming prowess and skills would be going overboard, considering the scarcity of applicants now. One would lose on a great candidate if gaming skills were a priority. Of course, gaming knowledge coupled with technical skills would be a dynamic combo. However, recruiters need to understand that even non-gamers can be remarkable development or design professionals. 

Today, apart from game developers and coders, a wide range of skill sets have found their way into the gaming industry, such as:

  • Technical Writers
  • UX Writers
  • UI Designers
  • Graphic Designers
  • Animation Experts
  • Game Testers
  • Game Reviewers
  • Pure Pro Gamers

Hence, recruiters must approach hiring adventures with broad minds and welcome talents on board who can add the desired value to the company.

How Should Your Recruitment Strategy Look Like?

Evolution is a small word for what the gaming industry has gone through over the past years. On one hand, hiring processes are taking the stiff route, and on the other, candidates expect flexibility. From working hours and cool work cultures to health benefits and top-notch incentives – prospects know what they wish for themselves. Not to mention – the tedious hiring processes are nothing but a bummer for candidates these days. A streamlined recruitment process with short onboarding cycles would attract the right talent to your company.

Career growth, skill development, hefty pay scales, and healthy work culture have become the major reasons candidates join a gaming company. Moreover, the current talent community expects diversity and equality at the workplace in all aspects. Be it diversity amongst their teams or in the games the company develops – they’re eager to have it all. Hence, as a recruiter, you can induce diversity at the workplace to attract talents and fill empty vacancies.

#Fact: As of now, the gaming industry is dominated by men (74%) and the white population (64%), according to Gamesmith.

Here are some factors that can make your company stand out from the rest when it comes to appealing talents:

  • Value-driven work approach over time-sensitive regulations.
  • Hybrid and flexible working schedules.
  • A collaborative work environment.
  • Perks and incentives.
  • Learning curve.

#Quick Fact: Interestingly, nearly 45% of US gamers are women! Now, if the gaming industry hires more women than the present 19%, it will boost the sales and creativity of almost all gaming platforms big time.

Let’s make hiring HUGE in the gaming industry.

Despite there being no downfall of the gaming industry during and after the pandemic, there are some newly erupted challenges for recruiters. With AR (Augmented Reality) and cloud-based technologies taking multiple industries by storm, the current market scenario necessitates the creation of high-end games. Also, recruiters will need to up their game by sourcing talents from all around the world as the job seekers upskill themselves constantly to stay a notch ahead of the market.

Newly arrived blockchain gaming trends amongst others are looming as opportunities and challenges both for the talent seekers and job seekers. Since this industry is all about heightened creativity, the amalgamation of technology penetration and an unrelenting approach would lead to optimized recruitment solutions. 

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