The global gaming industry continues to go from strength to strength, with the industry’s value expected to surpass $300 billion by the end of 2025. This expansion is being fuelled by the explosion in demand for mobile games, cloud gaming services and AR/VR technologies going mainstream.
This growth, while exciting, puts added pressure on gaming studios - building highly skilled, specialist teams has become a top priority. This in turn means there’s increased demand for roles such as game developers, designers and producers.
But if you’re looking to find the best talent to meet this rising demand, it’s no longer sufficient to look in the conventional talent hubs like Silicon Valley (California), Tokyo and London.
For the gaming studios that really want to hire the best people, a global hiring strategy is essential. So what will the gaming jobs of tomorrow look like? And where are the emerging talent markets that will yield the specialist skills that gaming studios need in order to compete?
We’ll explore all of this in our analysis of the hiring trends that are shaping the gaming industry.
Global hiring trends in gaming: the 2025 outlook
To understand how to source the best gaming talent, it’s helpful to understand just how the sector itself has evolved in the past few years. If you’re reading this and you work in the industry already, some of these trends might already be familiar to you.
The technical specialisation surge
The way in which modern games are becoming more and more sophisticated can seem nothing short of miraculous. But of course, it’s not a miracle at all - it’s a testament to the specialists who work on these games every single day.
Some of these high demand specialist roles include
Game engine specialists
Unity and Unreal Engine developers have never been more in demand, particularly those with experience optimising for next-generation hardware
Backend infrastructure engineers
As games increasingly function as live services, engineers who can design scalable, resilient systems have become essential
AI/machine learning specialists
The integration of advanced AI into both gameplay systems and development pipelines has created a new category of highly sought-after professionals
Cross-platform expertise
Developers who can efficiently optimise experiences across mobile, console, PC, and emerging platforms command premium salaries
The remote work revolution
The post-pandemic era has cemented remote work as a permanent fixture in the gaming industry. And gaming studios have used this to their advantage, pioneering new workflows, tools and processes to enable asynchronous collaboration.
For instance, studios are investing in virtual collaboration tools that recreate the spontaneous creativity of physical co-location.
What’s more, offering remote-first roles has been a competitive recruitment advantage,
The democratisation of game development
It’s no longer just the big AAA studios who are making use of global talent - smaller studios are getting in on the action too!
Middleware & development tools have reduced the technical barriers to entry. The rise of specialised outsourcing partners for art, animation, QA and other disciplines.
The result? Indie studios with globally distributed teams are increasingly shipping titles that compete with AAA productions in both quality and commercial success.
A competitive hiring
Just because gaming companies need to hire for specific talent, doesn’t mean that talent is always available. Some gaming studios will struggle to hire for highly specialist roles; for instance nearly two-thirds of cybersecurity professionals report being understaffed, and 20% indicate that it takes over six months to find qualified candidates for open positions.
But if these are the deeper recruitment trends in the sector itself, where are the best places to actually look for gaming talent if you’ve got hiring plans in 2025.
The Omnipresent team has been crunching the numbers, and here’s what we found.
The Top 5 Countries to Hire Gaming Talent in 2025
Omnipresent’s work helping gaming companies hire globally gives us unique insight into where some of the emerging markets for gaming talent can be found.
The top 5 hiring markets for the gaming companies that we’ve worked with are Sweden, Portugal, New Zealand, Germany and France.
So what makes these countries so ideal for hiring the gaming talent your company needs?
Let’s take a closer look at the top 5.
Sweden: The AAA studio powerhouse
According to our data, Sweden accounted for 17% of gaming hires in the past four years.
It’s not hard to see why. The Swedish gaming industry has experienced remarkable growth, doubling its revenue over the past five years to reach approximately €3 billion (SEK 36.6 billion) in 2024. Market projections suggest continued expansion, with revenue expected to reach US$2.2 billion in 2025 and steady growth forecasted through 2029.
The country's gaming ecosystem has flourished, nurturing over 1,010 active gaming companies as of 2023.
While the majority of these studios (75.8%) operate with fewer than five employees, reflecting a vibrant indie development scene, Sweden is also home to influential industry giants.
Every gaming industry professional knows of the popularity of games like Candy Crush and Minecraft. What’s perhaps not appreciated is the extent to which these were Swedish innovations. The gaming studios behind these games - King, Mojang and Paradox Interactive, helped to drive an impressive 5.7 billion euros in revenue in 2022.
What’s driving this revenue? Swedish gaming companies are proving to be pioneers in AI integration in gaming, freeing up their developers to focus on creative problem solving, rather than routine tasks.
Swedish companies are also experimenting more and more with AR and VR innovations, including using AR applications to train the next generation of Swedish gaming talent with 3D visualisations.
It’s also a sector that’s rife with M&A activity: in 2022, the Swedish gaming sector saw 21 reported acquisitions alone.
The Swedish gaming workforce has grown considerably, with 9,089 professionals employed domestically and over 15,792 globally by Swedish companies in 2023.
Portugal
Portugal has emerged as a significant player in the global gaming talent landscape. Our analysis indicates it made up 15.4% of total hires for employers using the Omnipresent platform.
Its gaming industry is projected to grow by 11% by 2027.
This substantial percentage reflects the country's growing reputation as a valuable source of game development expertise within the European market.
The Portuguese game development scene has transformed dramatically in recent years, with Lisbon and Porto establishing themselves as vibrant creative centres.
These cities have become focal points for both homegrown studios and international companies looking to establish development outposts within the European Union.
Portugal offers an attractive proposition for game studios through its balance of quality and affordability.
Portuguese developers typically command salaries at approximately 60-70% of their Northern European counterparts, making it easier to hire the talent you need at a lower cost.
Salaries for gaming developers can go as high as 64,700 euros ($69,000 US dollars).
Germany
Germany remains Europe’s largest video game market, generating around €9.4 billion in total revenue in 2024.
While the market dipped slightly due to a slowdown in blockbuster releases and normalised console demand, it continues to offer strong long-term potential. The sector is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 7.2 percent through to 2030, with mobile gaming leading the way.
For employers, Germany’s real strength lies in its mature, highly skilled talent base.
The country is home to major studios like Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Crytek Frankfurt, and Yager Development, alongside a thriving indie and mobile development scene. A strong education pipeline, including vocational schools and dual-track university programmes, ensures a consistent supply of qualified candidates.
Salaries are competitive but generally lower than in the US or UK. Junior developers earn between USD 55,000 and 74,000 per year, with mid-level roles averaging around USD 70,000 to 90,000. Senior specialists regularly exceed USD 100,000, and some top-end positions at companies like Aptos or ImmutableX can reach well into the six figures. Remote software developers in Germany expect an average of USD 72,900 per year, which makes the country a cost-effective choice for studios looking to hire globally.
The talent pool is also deep across key disciplines. Developers often have strong command of Unity and Unreal Engine, and languages like C++, C#, and Python are widely used.
Specialisations include AI programming, game analytics, blockchain features, VR/AR development, and live ops. This makes Germany a flexible market for studios building teams with specific technical needs.
Germany’s central location offers ideal time zone overlap for teams working across North America and Asia, adding to its appeal as a base for distributed production.
There are a few trade-offs. Hiring in Germany involves navigating strict labour laws and a higher level of administrative complexity compared to some other markets. However, that comes with benefits: higher retention, strong employee protections, and a more predictable work culture.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s games industry is growing fast — and it’s pushing the talent market to its limits. More than half of studios plan to scale in 2024/25, and nearly a third expect growth of over 20 percent. That’s making hiring one of the sector’s biggest challenges.
The industry is still relatively small, employing just over 1,100 people across 93 studios. But the concentration is striking: nearly three-quarters of those roles sit within just 12 companies.
Salaries reflect the pressure. The average game developer earns NZD 101,600 a year. For senior developers, that figure climbs to NZD 124,300 — and can top NZD 143,000 for those with the right experience. It’s a tough landscape for local studios competing for talent. But for overseas companies, New Zealand still offers strong value compared to higher-cost markets like the US or UK, especially for remote roles.
There are other advantages too.
With a legacy in world-class filmmaking, New Zealand has deep expertise in visual effects and animation. Studios like Wētā FX have helped build an ecosystem that supports game development, particularly in motion capture and cinematics. Government incentives sweeten the deal further, with rebates of up to 20 percent available for eligible digital production work.
The local talent pool is small, and while remote work helps, the country’s geographic isolation can complicate real-time collaboration with European or East Coast US teams. On the upside, there’s good overlap with West Coast US and Asian time zones — a natural fit for studios with round-the-clock production cycles.
Put simply, New Zealand is an excellent hub for specialist creative roles — especially in animation, narrative design, and cinematics. It may not be the place to scale a massive dev team. But for high-impact, focused hiring, it delivers well beyond its size.
France
France was at the bottom of our top 5 league table - but it still comprises nearly 8% of the gaming hires that Omnipresent has helped companies to make.
France continues to be one of Europe’s top-tier gaming markets, generating an estimated USD 5.76 billion (€5.7 billion) in revenue in 2024.
While the market contracted slightly after a record-breaking 2023, long-term forecasts remain strong. Revenue is projected to grow at an annual rate of 6 to 7.4 percent, reaching somewhere between USD 9.08 and 9.94 billion by the end of the decade.
The French market is dominated by mobile gaming, which accounted for more than half of total revenue in 2024.
PC gaming also showed solid growth, while console sales declined nearly 19 percent, following global trends of hardware normalisation after the pandemic surge. Even so, consoles and PC titles remain a key part of the ecosystem, particularly for core and midcore audiences.
With over 38 million gamers, France has one of the largest and most engaged player bases in Europe. Gaming spans demographics and age groups, embedded deeply in the country’s cultural fabric as both a social activity and a creative pursuit. Consumer spending reached an all-time high of €6.1 billion in 2023 before moderating slightly in 2024 — a correction more than a contraction.
France’s development scene benefits from a strong tradition of visual arts, animation, and storytelling, underpinned by a government that actively supports its creative industries. This includes funding, education programmes, and regional incentives that help foster local studios. While the biggest names — like Ubisoft — dominate internationally, France is also home to a growing number of mid-sized and boutique studios focused on narrative-driven experiences and stylistically distinct games.
Retail remains a notable force in the French market, with physical game sales continuing to hold relevance thanks to a strong network of high-street stores and dedicated outlets. At the same time, cloud gaming, online services, and in-game purchases are fuelling digital growth, especially among younger consumers and mobile-first players.
For international studios, France offers high-quality talent, particularly in art, animation, game design, and narrative development. English-language fluency varies, especially outside major cities, but many French developers working in games are comfortable operating in international teams.
Salaries tend to be higher than in Eastern Europe but lower than in the US or UK, making France a viable option for creative hires, especially if you're looking to build out a team with strong aesthetic instincts and storytelling flair.
The trade-offs? Labour protections and hiring regulations can add some friction to the recruitment process, and the market is competitive when it comes to top-tier talent. But for studios prioritising quality over quantity, France delivers depth, originality, and cultural capital in spades.
Why gaming studios are turning to an Employer of Record for their hiring needs.
Scaling a game studio internationally isn’t just about finding great talent — it’s about navigating a minefield of legal systems, salary benchmarks, benefits expectations, and collaboration challenges.
Whether you’re building a mobile team in France, hiring VFX specialists in New Zealand, or staffing a live ops function out of Germany, the complexity can quickly stack up.
An Employer of Record (EOR) solves for exactly that. Think of it as your shortcut to setting up a local presence — without needing to establish a legal entity, register for tax, or figure out employment law country by country.
For game studios, the value is especially clear.
An EOR gives you access to real-time, localised hiring insights: what developers are actually earning, what benefits they expect, how quickly you need to move to secure the hire. That helps you stay competitive in markets where talent is scarce and demand is fierce.
It also gives you a clear view on total cost. Salary bands can vary dramatically between junior and senior developers — and even more between countries. An EOR helps you understand not just base pay, but the full cost of employment, so you don’t overshoot your budget or lose candidates with underwhelming offers.
Then there’s the benefits piece. In gaming, talent is mobile — and often global. An EOR ensures your compensation package lands well with local candidates, whether that means private health insurance in Germany, flexible parental leave in France, or the right retirement contributions in New Zealand.
Finally, EORs reduce the operational drag. Instead of drowning in contracts, compliance, and payroll logistics, your internal team stays focused on what matters: building the game.
For studios looking to scale across borders without slowing down, partnering with an EOR isn’t just a workaround — it’s a strategic advantage.
