The median salary for an artist in the Russian-speaking gaming industry is $1,200

We continue to publish the results of the salary survey chapter by chapter, conducted from April to May 2023. This publication is about the income levels of Russian-speaking game artists.

We remind you that we are currently conducting a new salary survey. Through it, we are collecting up-to-date data on the salary situation among Russian and Russian-speaking professionals. You can participate here:

The average salary of an artist in the Russian-speaking game industry is $1,820, with a median of $1,200.

The largest salary group among artists is those earning between $1,000 and $1,500 a month. Unlike programmers, there are very few artists earning more than $3,500.

The pie chart clearly shows that Russian-speaking game artists usually can expect a salary range from $700 to less than $2,500.

The distribution of Russian-speaking game artists across countries slightly differs from the overall situation. Turkey and Montenegro have become top relocation regions. The situation with Turkey deserves special attention. In the April 2022 relocation survey, the majority of respondents who moved out of the country (25.4%) claimed they relocated to Turkey. However, due to mass refusals in issuing local residency permits necessary for legal stay, by spring 2023, most game professionals had left Turkey.

In game development, artists have two main specializations: 2D Artist and 3D Artist. Together, they account for 48.3% of the profession's specialists.

These two foundational specialties (2D Artist and 3D Artist) have the lowest salaries within the profession. Both UI/UX artists and concept artists earn significantly more. Regarding maximum rates, they are traditionally available primarily to leadership. The median salary for an art manager reaches $3,700.

The average salary for an entry-level specialist starts at $887. As with programmers, there is not much salary difference between Senior and Lead rates. However, the gap between Lead and Head is quite significant.

Methodology

The research is the result of the third salary survey of Russian-speaking representatives in the game industry. The survey was conducted by WN Media Group from April to May 2023 through voluntary questionnaires (participants independently filled out a freely distributed questionnaire with questions).

A total of 1,004 completed surveys were received, of which 201 were from artists.