The average nominal pay for comparable years experience has fallen 13% from November 2022 to October 2026, according to an analysis by Amir Satvat, the game jobs champion.
In a LinkedIn post, Satvat wrote, “After years of observation and study, my working estimate is that nominal pay for comparable years experience in video games has fallen about 13% from November 2022 to October 2026. Using U.S. inflation as a benchmark, that translates into roughly a quarter less (23%) purchasing power over that period.”
Satvat, who is also general partner at 1Up Ventures for his day job, tracked this because one of the questions he has been asked most often is whether people are losing pay when they return to work after layoffs. For many workers, the answer is clearly yes, he said. He added that whether AI is contributing is a separate question these data cannot establish. Satvat also tracks both game layoffs and hiring. He has also helped more than 5,000 people find jobs in gaming in the past few years thanks to his job listings.
“Our community dataset, covering tens of thousands of people, also shows employers hiring people with roughly three additional years of experience into comparable roles for essentially unchanged pay. Flat nominal salaries can therefore conceal declining pay relative to experience. This is the most important factor driving this trend,” Satvat said.
He added that independent research provides directional support for these trends if you look anywhere.
Satvat wrote, “Remember that these are pure nominal decreases and don’t even offset for years of experience, as I have done to keep things as apples-to-apples as possible:”
• GDC’s 2025 U.S. survey found that 25% of respondents rehired after layoffs reported pay cuts of at least 10%.
• Skillsearch’s 2026 Games & Immersive survey found that 46% of reemployed respondents were earning less than before.
• InGame Job / Values Value reported that EU/UK/Swiss median pay fell 15% for senior art/design roles and 8% for senior programming roles between 2024 and 2025.
• GameSoundCon’s surveys show that median pay for U.S./Canadian game audio employees with two or fewer years of experience fell 6% between 2023 and 2025.
• The Polish Gamedev Salary Report 2025 found compensation at outsourcing and subcontractor companies fell 7% from 2024, measured as total employer cost.
These studies cover different populations and periods. Even with a community dataset this large, Satvat said he always wants rich independent corroboration of the patterns he observes. These findings provide that directional support.
“For people who must live in expensive games hubs, where we know 75%+ of open roles exist in North America, housing affordability can make financial recovery harder still and the 23% decrease is likely understated,” Satvat said.
In closing, he wrote, “That is why understanding the challenges of working in games means looking beyond whether someone finds another job. We also need to ask what their pay buys in real dollars per year of experience.”