How worldwide demand in game jobs market changed in 2020?

In 2019, the market was valued at an impressive USD 151.55 B. By 2021 it’s predicted to reach USD 180.1B with mobile gaming taking over as the most in-demand segment of the market. Moreover, it is expected to reach a staggering USD 256.97 B by the year 2025! The most revenue (in million USD) is coming from China (32,536), followed by the United States (25,426), Japan (14,048), Sweden (4,430), United Kingdom (4,238), and France (2,977).

Cloud gaming

Contributing to the numbers above is definitely cloud gaming. The emergence of that type of gaming is driving the market big time. Recent improvements in advanced cloud technology have allowed turning the idea of cloud gaming into reality. In cloud gaming, the server, where all the games are stored, does all the computation work (including game scene rendering, game logic processing, video encoding, and video streaming). Several big players in this market, such as Online, G-Cluster, Gaikai are already offering commercial cloud gaming. And it seems that cloud gaming is here to stay positioning itself as a solid competitor for the traditional game market. Sega, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, Warner Bros, just to name a few, have established cooperation with Onlive to distribute their games.

VR

To surprise many, virtual reality is proving to become a major keystone for the game jobs market. It’s predicted that by 2020 players will spend USD 4.5 B on immersive gaming. Worth to mention there are two names of the companies; BigScreenVR and AltSpaceVR that are currently leading and expedite a virtual future perhaps faster than many expected. More to come here!

Mobile

The 5G and unlimited data plans resulting in the mobile market have been booming since about 2017. There were more than 200 million mobile game players in 2019 in the United States. That rapidly increasing demand for mobile games is a direct result of the multiple technological progressions in the market. So we have AR, VR, and cloud gaming. But it is also due to the rising internet perforation, and the number of people with access to the internet in emerging markets has increased in the past couple of years. It’s also due to the global expansion of Chinese smartphone manufacturers offering affordable smartphones and local investment in mobile internet infrastructure.

There is also a new trend, large companies creating games for consoles and PC’s are also releasing their games in ‘mobile version’ owing to the increasing mobile games market. The highly awaited mobile game of 2019 was Call of Duty: Mobile. And the result was good.

Competition

The gamedev and game jobs market is highly disunited as the demand for online games and growing acumen of mobile applications across the world is pathing a way to aggressive competition in the market.

With some key players like Sony Corporation, Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. that try to keep innovating and releasing next-generation gaming consoles, that provides tough competition among the rivals.

COVID-19

With the outbreak of the pandemic, home entertainment seems to be the best option for people in lockdown. With closed theaters and cinemas, the market is witnessing significant growth in downloads of the various apps, time spent, and engagement in online games massively.

The March 2020 survey shows that video gamers in the United States said that they spent 45% more time playing video games amid the quarantine than in the previous week. (Source Hollywood Reporter) the U.S. saw a growth of 45% with France 38%, the U.K. 29%, and Germany 20%. Online play has also increased, with respondents consuming more time spent playing games with others via the internet connection. 29% percent of U.S. gamers said that they have been playing more with friends online since the pandemic began, while 17% of those in the U.K. and 12% in France responded that they have been playing more online than offline. However, French gamers reported a more significant increase in “in-person” multiplayer, 9%, a bit worrying number, given the social distancing guidelines.

Esports is another emerging industry that manages to make more than a billion USD a year. And it gained further interest. The increase in the first-time download of Twitch after the epidemic in March has reached 14% in the U.S.A and an astounding 41% in Italy.

Recruitment

Along with those figures, the job market in video games has seen some major changes too. While the number of open roles in the gaming industry has dropped a slight 3% and 4% for developers and designers, interest from job seekers has plummeted.

While we saw a big jump in video game jobs offered by our clients in October and November, there was some drop in overall jobs from November to December. We are predicting that it’s a result of the fact that as we get closer to the end of the year and the holiday season, many video game companies might be bringing their recruitment efforts to a close until 2021.

Adding to the job market report 2020, we can say that we have seen increased activity with the hiring of more senior candidates. Game development jobs, programming, and remote game jobs remain massively on the rise too. We are predicting this new climate is here to stay for longer. In the Q1 through to Q2 of 2020, most studios were adjusting to a new way of the WFH scenario, communications, e-meetings, and project delivery. The doubts were almost tangible. But we are now hearing that teams, their projects, their activity, and efficiency didn’t drop, but they’ve improved! This is a very promising and encouraging result for the future of jobs in the video game industry and the remote teams.

We hope the trust was built, bonds strengthened and now some of you can enjoy an early as well as extended Christmas breaks that were awarded to you in this climate. Bravo teams!