Employer-review website Glassdoor released its choices for the “50 Best Places to Work” earlier today, and game development only has one representative on the entire list.
Riot Games is the No. 18 best place to work in North America (and parts of Europe), according to Glassdoor. The website’s editors gathered up all the reviews that people have submitted about their employers to determine the list. This methodology means we’re not looking at a scientific study here — instead, this is a non-independent look at what employees thing. With that in mind, the top 10 is made up of familiar high-profile enterprises like Airbnb (at No. 1), Facebook (No. 5), and Google (No. 8). But Riot is the only company in the entire top 50 that focuses primarily on making games. With its No. 18 ranking, it comes in above The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (No. 22), Apple (No. 25), and Red Bull (No. 46). This is impressive considering game development is a difficult job that is notorious for treating employees as dispensable because it’s easy to find talented, passionate people who will work for less than their market value.
We’ve reached out to Riot for a comment, and we’ll update this story with the company’s response.
On Glassdoor, Riot has an average rating of 4.1. Of the Riot employees who have submitted a review, 86 percent would recommend working at Riot to a friend. And 98 percent of employees approve of the job that chief executive officer Brandon Beck is doing.
Reading through Riot’s reviews more closely, you see a trend of people praising the company’s culture. Employees seem love that the Riot puts players first and encourages employees to boot up League of Legends multiple times a day to keep a strong bond with the game.
One of the big negatives that people bring up repeatedly is that Riot is growing so fast that it makes it difficult for individuals to keep up with all the changes the company is making. And, of course, employees pointed out that work-life balance is a problem — as it is with seemingly every major game studio.
Still, it sounds like Riot has better work-life balance than the Mormon church!