Regardless of how much you love games and game development, at some point, you must ask yourself which gaming company pays the highest salary. To make your life easier, we processed a lot of data and presented them to give you a birdseye perspective.
The gaming industry is growing faster than ever, and more professionals are orienting their careers towards game development. Some of the companies we will discuss later employ more than 100,000 people, so it’s safe to say that there is a sweet spot for every qualified expert in the industry.
Before we dig deep into the data, it’s important to note that big gaming companies usually list salaries as ranges. Each game developer gets to discuss and negotiate their personal salary with the company before getting hired. The outcome of the negotiation is usually determined by the need, expertise, and specific project one will work on. Either way, in the tables below, we’ll give you each of the top companies’ salary averages and more!
Which gaming company pays the highest salary?
The gaming company that pays the highest salary is Roblox Corporation. We analyzed 25+ gaming companies, and Roblox Corporation offers a payment that’s 51% higher than the average in the sector.
Here are the top gaming companies in the world based on the average salary they pay:
| Company* | Average Salary (USD) | Position | Annual Salary (USD)** | PTO | Remote-friendly | 401(k) plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roblox Corporation 👑 | $273,492 | Senior Engineer | $258,810 | Flexible | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Product Designer | $226,080 | Flexible | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior/Principal Product Manager | $335,585 | Flexible | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ubisoft | $184,277 | Senior Software Engineer | $176,827 | 18 days | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Game Designer | $167,450 | 18 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Lead Product Manager | $208,553 | 18 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Electronic Arts | $183,306 | Senior Software Engineer | $170,018 | 21 days | No | Yes |
| Lead Level Designer | $172,450 | 21 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior Producer | $207,450 | 21 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| NetEase | $181,275 | Senior Software Engineer | $229,492 | 16 days | Yes | Yes |
| Lead UX Designer | $164,021 | 16 days | No | Yes | ||
| Senior Producer | $150,312 | 16 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tencent | $179,283 | Senior Software Engineer | $180,000 | 16 days | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Gameplay Designer | $178,500 | 16 days | No | Yes | ||
| Senior Producer | $179,350 | 16 days | No | Yes | ||
| NCsoft | $170,931 | Senior Software Engineer | $192,826 | 12 days | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Game Designer | $162,624 | 12 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior Producer | $157,342 | 12 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Microsoft | $165,200 | Senior Software Engineer | $165,200 | 17 days | Yes | Yes |
| Lead Game Designer | $165,200 | 17 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior Game Producer | $165,200 | 17 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Bandai Namco | $156,008 | Senior Engineer | $165,231 | Summer vacation | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Game Designer | $161,983 | Summer vacation | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior Producer | $140,811 | Summer vacation | Yes | Yes | ||
| Square Enix | $155,579 | Senior Software Engineer | $176,760 | 20 days | Yes | Yes |
| Senior Game Designer | $101,575 | 20 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Senior Product Manager | $188,403 | 20 days | Yes | Yes | ||
| Konami Holdings | $151,780 | Senior Software Engineer | $162,901 | 20 days | No | Yes |
| Senior Designer | $130,361 | 20 days | No | Yes | ||
| Senior Product Manager | $162,079 | 20 days | No | Yes |
*Companies were ranked based on the average salary for three similar positions.
**Annual salaries are the average advertised salary range for each job.
Roblox Corporation
🗓 Founded: 2006
👩💻 Number of employees: 2,100+
🔝 The most popular titles: Adopt Me, Brookhaven RP, Doors & Epic Minigames
All titles are made in the Roblox game creation system.
Roblox’s popularity skyrocketed in the early 2010s, making the gaming company behind it very successful. This allowed further expansion of the company, which now has more than two thousand people on its payroll.
What makes Roblox unique, besides astronomical salaries, is the flexibility and treatment they give to their workers. There are no strict PTO or DTO schemes. Instead, the company put together Roflex. This system allows the employees to organize themselves and decide when and where they will work.
💡 Another exciting fact is that Roblox is the youngest company on this list. It is also the only company in the top five from this century!
Switching the focus to employees’ well-being and keeping competitive salaries brought innovation to Roblox. This innovation was, and still is, disseminated through the game platform that tens of millions of players love and play daily.
The enormous community around Roblox gave flexibility to the management to offer such salaries for the core team members. On the other hand, millions of self-initiated developers create and work on Roblox games without direct affiliation to the company.
Roblox will continue striving to create an environment where employees are highly paid and tasked to develop a broad context. The final tweaks are for the end-users and Roblox developers, working independently.
Ubisoft
🗓 Founded: 1986
👩💻 Number of employees: 20,000+
🔝 The most popular titles: Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs & Tom Clancy’s
One of the companies that has been in business for almost four decades surely appreciates their staff if we judge solely on the salary they receive. However, besides high income, Ubisoft had to meet other needs to produce titles like Assasin’s Creed or Far Cry.
To fulfill these employee needs, the company ensured flexibility regarding working hours and remote work, a great thing to begin with. What we often see lacking in other tech and gaming studios in Ubisoft is part of weekly and monthly routines: Well-being workshops.
Besides mental well-being, Ubisoft pays attention to the physical condition of their game developers. This is why they reward them with sports cards and provide additional medical and dental insurance. Extra paid time off can be earned through volunteering but also granted based on work anniversaries, education, and, of course, well-being.
💡 Ubisoft was founded by several members of the Guillemot family, who own shares of the company to this day. This is probably the root of the warm and caring environment they created there.
Ubisoft became a successful company only a few years after being established, and only a decade later, it was publicly traded on the stock market! Since then, the company has purchased rights to many games and game studios worldwide.
Electronic Arts
🗓 Founded: 1982
👩💻 Number of employees: 12,900+
🔝 The most popular titles: FIFA, The Sims, Apex Legends & Battlefield
Regardless of the genre a gamer is crazy about, EA has something to offer! From the most successful sports games (FIFA series) and life simulations (The Sims) to battle royals (Apex Legends). All titles were a huge success, but let’s see what motivates more than 12,900 people worldwide to create them.
First of all, paid time off is accessible and generous. In the context of our list, EA is the company with the most PTO days! In addition to that, most of the locations worldwide close for a week yearly, so game developers can recharge and relax.
Keeping a personal and professional life is not always that easy. However, EA found a way to support employees’ personal lives without getting too involved. They provide additional time off, flexible work hours, and other resources that can help the youngest members of your family.
Similarly to Ubisoft, EA established its wellbEAing program. Since the company is international, it puts efforts into ensuring that the program is adjusted to different regions and needs.
Here are the priorities for EA Sports:
🎮 Develop relatable content and games.
🌎 Enable expansion into new and diverse markets.
💡 Attract, develop, and retain great talent that can thrive and do their best work.
🙋♂️ Bridge to better representation that authentically reflects players around the world.
Speaking about tailored-made solutions, the company ensures all employees get suitable mentoring. This helps individuals and the company grow, and the goal is to accelerate career development. This way, the management tries to increase retention and train game developers for senior positions.
NetEase Games
🗓 Founded: 1997
👩💻 Number of employees: 31,100+
🔝 The most popular titles: Identity V, Knives Out, LifeAFter & Badlanders
All titles are mobile gaming apps.
The mobile gaming industry is growing globally. With it, some companies are increasing unstoppably. One of these companies is NetEase, where some of the most popular mobile titles became a reality.
In a vast environment of more than 31,100 people globally, Senior Software Engineers became one of the most appreciated engines of success. Creating mobile games comes with many compatibility obstacles, so NetEase rewards engineers with around $230,000 yearly.
Another vital aspect is diversity and sectors. Although primarily oriented towards game development, this company is expanding towards the eCommerce and education industry, making it an ideal destination for developers willing to experiment with different areas.
Becoming an expert in a specific field is always more rewarding and appreciated. On the other hand, having the opportunity to work in a completely different sector within the same company is something valuable.
👉 One of the career placements states that they are looking for somebody with good knowledge of mobile/console/PC games while open to new games. For us, this screams a welcoming approach towards different perspectives!
Besides potential transfers between departments and sectors, employees can always look into opportunities to work from another continent. NetEase is currently running its operations in Asia, Europe, and North America.
This company from China is shaping the digital landscape there and globally. Being one of the largest IT companies in the world, it is a promising place to work, considering the salaries as well.
Tencent Games
🗓 Founded: 1998
👩💻 Number of employees: 108,400+
🔝 The most popular titles: League of Legends, Valorant & PUBG
Another massive company from China made it to the top five list regarding salaries. In 2015, the company gained complete ownership of Riot Games and became part of Epic Games. Tencent has been in business for 25 years and has a rich portfolio of companies they own and the games from these companies.
One of the most essential values in such an environment is integrity. The company shows dedication to keeping ethics, openness, and fairness on a high level.
Tencent has offices in all (inhabited) continents! USA, China, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and New Zealand are only a fraction of the places from which this company runs its operations. The Internal Transfer Program of Tencent might allow you to experiment and find your ideal location!
Proactivity, collaboration, and creativity are highly appreciated and encouraged in such a diverse environment. The salaries across different sectors are also fairly evened, giving the impression of equality.
However, Tencent is the only company in the top five list that is not actively encouraging remote work. Although technical and engineering positions have some flexibility, most other sectors are performing their work from the office. In the best case, you can expect a variation of the hybrid job.
Take this with reserve, as it’s impossible to pinpoint in a 100,000+ employees company who is doing what and from where.
Lastly, Tencent introduced an exciting addition to its culture. All of the employees are teachers and friends. This is part of the Tencent Academy, allowing everybody to share and receive knowledge actively.
❓ Did you know? Some companies prefer hiring freelancers for specific projects and pay the game developer salary per hour.
Which gaming company offers the best work environment?
The gaming company that offers the best work environment is Microsoft. With the highest rating of their CEO on this list, Microsoft employees also highly value company culture. 86% of Microsoft employees would recommend the company to a friend.
Here are the top gaming companies in the world based on the average scores on work environment:
| Company | Average | CEO Rating | WRTAF* | WLB** | Happiness | Management | Retention | Culture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 👑 | 81 | 92 | 86 | 78 | 81 | 72 | 76 | 80 |
| Roblox | 79 | 85 | 79 | 80 | 77 | 78 | 76 | 80 |
| NetEase | 78 | 84 | 75 | 82 | 75 | 82 | 66 | 84 |
| Sony | 77 | 89 | 80 | 78 | 73 | 74 | 70 | 78 |
| Nintendo | 76 | 91 | 73 | 76 | 74 | 72 | 70 | 78 |
| Tencent | 76 | 88 | 80 | 74 | 62 | 80 | 66 | 82 |
| Capcom | 76 | 83 | 73 | 80 | 77 | 72 | 69 | 76 |
| Electronic Arts | 75 | 80 | 82 | 76 | 73 | 68 | 72 | 76 |
| Square Enix | 73 | 72 | 83 | 78 | 80 | 70 | 50 | 80 |
| NCsoft | 72 | 58 | 64 | 86 | 63 | 80 | 73 | 82 |
*WRTAF = Would recommend to a friend
**WLB = Work-life balance
The average score on the work environment was calculated as the average of the other scores in the company row. All scores are on a scale of 1 to 100.
The companies on this list differ only by several points, with Microsoft (#1) scoring 81 and NCsoft (#10) scoring 72. We can also see that employees of all companies rated the corporate culture with an average of 80. Although it is tough to measure, the average rating for happiness is 74.
Some companies, like Square Enix (#9), Tencent (#6), and NetEase (#3), struggle with employee retention. It’s important to note that these companies have several thousand a hundred thousand employees. The point is that good organization and talent management can be a pain point in a company of any size.
Another important aspect is the work-life balance, where all companies scored high. An interesting comparison is between NCsoft and Microsoft, where we can see that NCsoft employees gave eight points more on happiness.
The negative extremum is Tencent, which has the lowest score in this table on work-life balance but still reached position six due to high scores on culture, management, and one of the highest CEO approvals.
The CEO of Nintendo (#5) has a score of 91, making him the second most desirable CEO in the industry, based on the researched companies. However, average or below-average ratings for the other categories put Nintendo in the golden middle of the list.
Tencent (#6) employees rate their happiness as the lowest, scoring 62. On the other hand, based on this research, Microsoft (#1) seems like a company where employees can’t wait for Monday to come, scoring happiness at work with 81.
🔑 The balance is the key. We will prove this statement in the next section, considering that Roblox has the most balanced scores on this list among different categories.
Which gaming studio is the best to work for?
The best gaming studio to work for is Roblox. The company has been in the market for less than two decades, creating an innovative and prosperous environment for gamers and game developers. The combination of high salaries and a healthy work environment makes work at Roblox different.
As a result of comparing companies based on the highest-paying jobs in the gaming industry and the work environment, we present you the top 10 best gaming studios to work for:
| Company | Overall rating |
|---|---|
| Roblox Corporation 👑 | 9.5 |
| NetEase | 7.5 |
| Microsoft | 7 |
| Tencent | 5.5 |
| Electronic Arts | 5.5 |
| Ubisoft | 4.5 |
| Sony | 3.5 |
| NCsoft | 3 |
| Nintendo | 3 |
| Capcom | 2 |
The overall rating was calculated based on salary and work environment findings in the previous two tables. Companies with the highest average salary* and with the highest score on the work environment** got the most points for the overall rating.
*Average salary was calculated for the positions listed in the first table.
**Score on work environment was calculated as the average of scores on CEO rating, Would recommend to a friend, Work-life balance, Happiness, Management, Retention, and Culture.
We didn’t consider benefits like paid time off, remote-friendliness, and 401(k) plans for the overall rating as they vary based on the position, experience, and agreement. Many gaming studios nowadays offer Discretionary Time Off (DTO), which allows employees to organize their work autonomously.
Summary
Hopefully, you are no longer wondering which gaming company pays the highest salary, and you got all the necessary information you were after. Roblox reached the top of lists regarding compensation, benefits, and work environment scores. This puts it in the first spot as the most desirable company to work for.
However, remember that Roblox employs only around 2,000 people, far less than other companies on the list. You must be a precious, experienced, educated professional to find your place there. Consider also other companies from the list, such as NetEase and Microsoft.
Overall, gaming companies in 2023 offer many benefits, work hard to make a healthy work environment, and provide more than decent compensation. Most are remote-friendly and offer a flexible time off, depending on the role. Landing a job in any of the companies we reviewed will likely be a massive step in the career for any Game Developer.
FAQ
How much does a Game Developer make per month?
Game Developer in the USA makes $10,105 per month. The salary depends on the department and the experience so some Senior Engineers can expect up to $21,567 monthly.
Which gaming company pays the highest salary in the world?
Roblox is the gaming company that pays the highest salary in the world. Senior Product Manager at this company earns $335,585 yearly. Other positions in Roblox, like designers and engineers, earn between $225,000 and $260,00.
Which gaming company pays the highest salary in the USA?
The gaming company that pays the highest salary in the USA is Roblox, with the average yearly salary for the positions analyzed is $273,492.