The COVID-19 pandemic has been a bane for many industries. However, the gaming industry has increased in popularity due to the pandemic for the recent boom in the business. The rise in gaming has led to the gaming industry becoming one of the top employers in the UK, among other notable feats.
According to a recent survey by a global recruiting firm, Walters, and Data provider Vacancysoft, the gaming industry employs people across 23 towns and cities in the UK today. Furthermore, a rising amount of small gaming companies generate 4,000 full-time roles and over 330 million euros each year.
The report titled, ‘Gaming: Perfect Play for Growth’ states a growing realization for investors worldwide. The gaming industry is here to stay. For example, the UK is home to some prestigious games worldwide including Rockstar North, Codemasters, Criterion, and Creative Assembly. During the pandemic, the industry registered a 20% growth in jobs. The report also states that growth will likely triple in the next five years.
Tom Chambers, a technical expert, at Robert Walters, comments:
“With the average contribution per employee of the gaming sector sitting at £80,000 – double the national average and the most productive of all the creative industries in the nation – there is no industry quite like gaming that can evidence its high potential in helping to uphold the UK economy as we navigate out of the pandemic.”
Echoes Around the World
Video games were once a relic only for the young. However, today the gaming industry makes more in revenues as compared to the film, and music industry combined. During the lockdowns, the sales of games jumped up by 218%. This doesn’t include the digital sales of many games on streaming platforms.
The gaming industry today employs more than 47,000 professionals in the UK. Moreover, subsidiary businesses like merchandising and eSports remain a big crowd puller as competitions for popular online games like DOTA 2 manage to draw several million in prize pools through contributions.
The professional scopes for new individuals also keep rising in the gaming sector. For example, in recent times 75% of roles in the gaming sector diverged from the traditional IT domain down to 68%. Promising functions for non-technical professionals has risen in areas like back office, and support. Furthermore, the industry supports 13% PR related functional roles, due to its promising growth trajectory.
In his recent speech, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about the rising potential of the gaming industry. As the gaming industry rises in status, echoes will continue to be heard louder around the world in near future.
