Salaries of Ukrainian game developers and top 11 employers in the industry

The recruiting agency Skillers has published a study of the Ukrainian game development industry: popular specialties, best employers, average salaries. It was conducted from September 2020 to January 2021 through a survey of Ukrainian professionals. A total of 262 respondents participated in the survey. You can download the report for free on the agency’s website.

Portrait of Ukrainian game dev

The majority of the surveyed game developers are men (70% vs. 29%). 41% of them are middle and senior-level specialists:

The majority of respondents work in Kyiv, and many are also employed in Lviv and Kharkiv:

The majority of respondents chose to work in the game development industry because they are passionate about computer games:

Working conditions and salaries

Depending on the specialization, the respondents have different types of employment. Artists, for example, equally work from the office or remotely, whereas top managers prefer to work in an office.

Over 55% of the respondents said that, in general, they were satisfied with the conditions of work (but there are shortcomings). 29.4% are more than satisfied, 13.4% of respondents are not completely satisfied with the conditions, and 1.5% are completely dissatisfied.

Top employers

The survey participants indicated that factors such as project, salary, and team were very important to them:

The respondents mentioned salary (24.7%), completion of a project (22.04%), and lack of opportunities (19.76%) as the most frequent reasons for leaving the company.

If to consider median salaries in the industry, the actual earnings and expectations of professionals correlate as follows:

According to the participants’ responses, the ranking of the top employers looks as follows: