Gaming jobs grew by 5% in 2021: annual statistics and trends

The leading platform for gaming and esports jobs, Hitmarker, has shared hard data on the hiring landscape from 2021.

The data: Hitmarker has released an infographic that compares 2021 data to the prior year.

• Hitmarker is the platform with the most comprehensive data on work opportunities in esports and the wider gaming industry.
• The infographic, which you can download here, provides tangible insights into the landscape during the global health situation.

Main takeaways: The industry bounced back from a tough 2020.

• Job opportunities grew over 5% from 2020 to 2021, with roles on the platform growing from 39,330 to 41,314.
• 86% of roles in 2021 were full-time opportunities, with only 1.97% of the total roles being freelance. Internship openings remained almost identical year-on-year.
• Soft engineering was the top employment sector of 2021 comprising of 8.51% of the total opportunities, marking 0.89% growth from 2020. Rounding out the top five were game development, game design, marketing, and HR & recruiting respectively.

Dive deeper → Insights into job-hunting preferences in gaming

More trends: Here are the main companies and countries in hiring from 2021.

• Ubisoft was the top hiring company of 2021 with 1.87% year-on-year growth taking it to 5.77% of the total posted jobs in gaming, toppling 2020's top company in EA.
• Los Angeles was the top hiring city of the year with 5.64% of the total opportunities. London, San Francisco, Montreal, and Vancouver round out the top five, meaning four of the five top hiring cities were in North America.
• The United States was the top hiring country in 2021 having posted 37.55% of the total amount of jobs — this dropped from 39.10% in 2020, however. Remote working ranked third with 10.13% of the total amount of jobs, an annual increase of 3.65%.

Download the infographic for more data on the jobs landscape in 2020 & 2021.