18.6% of Russian-speaking game designers earn less than $1,000

We continue publishing the results of the salary survey chapter by chapter, which we conducted from April to May 2023. This publication focuses on the income levels of Russian-speaking game designers.

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

$1,975 is the average salary of a game designer in the Russian-speaking gaming industry. The median is $1,700.

There are three main salary groups among game designers. All of them range from $1,000 but are less than $2,500.

We received more survey responses from game designers than from any other specialty (over 200), so the data presented in this part of the study is the most accurate.

18.6% of Russian-speaking game designers earn less than $1,000. The proportion of game designers earning more than $2,500 per month is almost a quarter (23.6%) of the surveyed specialists in this profile.

The lowest salaries are among game designers living in Belarus and Russia. The highest are in Cyprus and Turkey. However, there are very few game designers in these last two countries. Most game designers are concentrated in Russia, Georgia, and Serbia.

Most game designers do not associate themselves with any specific specialty. This might be because their range of duties is as broad as possible.

There is no significant difference in pay between designers of various profiles. The only exception is UI/UX designers. On average, they earn $300-500 more than other specialists responsible for game design.

Despite a higher starting average pay than artists ($968 versus $887), game designers have the same median ($800). Most game designers are at the Middle level, earning an average of $1,550 per month.

Methodology

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

During the survey, 1004 completed questionnaires were received. Of these, 259 were from game designers.