MCV Salary Survey 2014: How much are you worth?

This year, our salary survey shows a slight increase in the average UK games industry yearly wage.

AVERAGE UK GAMES INDUSTRY YEARLY SALARY: 30,653

Last year, we reported the average salary was 29,358. This year’s figure of 30,653 is broadly in line with the average UK games industry salary for the last few years (with the notable exception of 2011, where the number was significantly higher at 33,123).

The biggest drops this year came at games retail level. Store closures at HMV and Blockbuster have taken its toll, with some of the highest earners made redundant. As a result, the average wage of store managers and sales assistants have dropped year-on-year. Overall, there were fewer senior management respondents to the survey from all areas.

Retail had a tough year overall, with 70 per cent of those surveyed saying they did not receive a pay rise last year, while the average hours of those working in retail sits between 40 and 50 hours. However, if there’s one positive to find in the survey, it’s that optimism in the trade has increased.

On the whole, retail staff believe they have a good year ahead of them, which is in stark contrast to last year’s figures.

A role in the games industry that continues to grow in prominence is community manager, and for the first time we can reveal the average salary for this role is 23,000.

However, we can see from the individual answers that this salary can vary quite significantly depending on the industry sector (retail, development or publishing) and size of company. Community manager wages ranged from 19,000 up to 32,000.

We had a disproportionate number of female respondents to this year’s survey over male, and as a result comparing the genders is not something we can do with any real confidence. However, based on the replies we received, the female average salary is actually slightly higher than the men’s (in median terms) for the first time.

The methodology of our survey is that during December and January, MCV and our sister title Develop called on industry personnel to fill in an online survey, which was conducted by almost 700 people (slightly fewer than last year).

Based on the median workings of this, the overall salary of games industry professionals (including development) was 30,896 per year. This figure does not include the highest paid execs (100,000 or more), but if we include those execs, the number rises to 31,758.

This is significantly down on last year’s number of 32,008 and down even further over 2012’s 34,263. However, it’s not the lowest figure on record, which was 2011’s 28,932.

Take a look at the full results of the MCV Salary Survey 2014 below.