Research: in the second half of 2023, the salary of game developers in Russia decreased by 28%
In the second half of 2023, IT specialists in Russia earned less than at the beginning of the year. According to Habr Career estimates, the median salary fell the most among game developers — by 28% to 128 thousand rubles.
How has the median salary of game developers changed compared to the first half of 2023 in different locations:
- Moscow — decreased by 34% to 180 thousand rubles;
- St. Petersburg — decreased by 17% to 150 thousand rubles;
- regions — decreased by 33% to 100 thousand rubles.
In a comment to the Kommersant newspaper, the product manager of Habr Careers, Artyom Ziza, said that salaries had fallen mainly for novice IT specialists.
"The salary reduction is one of the signals of an oversaturation of the market with a predominance of junior specialists who are primarily looking for experience, not a high salary," Ziza said.
This trend was also revealed in HeadHunter. According to the company, in the second half of 2023, a drop in salaries in the IT segment as a whole "is present in those vacancies for which applicants without experience apply." At the same time, salaries have increased in vacancies for managers.
HeadHunter estimated that the salary of game developers specifically decreased by 13% compared to the first half of 2023. It amounted to 75 thousand rubles.
Marina Lopatina, Director of Business Development at the WN Talents recruiting agency, agrees with the conclusions of Habr Careers and HeadHunter.
"Everything is logical. After February 2022, many realized that it was time to fulfill their dream and run into IT. There are a lot of Juniors, so when calculating the average salary, it seems that it has decreased. We have not posted vacancies for junes, so I cannot give our figures. This year, there were not so many vacancies for Russian specialists in general, but those that were, as far as I was concerned, set salary records. It amounted to 600-800 thousand rubles. But these were vacancies for high—level specialists: product managers and others," Lopatina commented.
