This 2017 ESA report showed where game jobs and companies were in the U.S.

Where in the world are the game jobs?

Figuring out how many game jobs there are in the world is a laudable goal. But it’s easier said that done.

I embarked on this task a while ago as part of a quest to figure out which regions of the world are most competitive when it comes to making and publishing games. PC and console games once ruled, and it wasn’t as easy to figure out which regions were strong: Japan, the U.S., and parts of Europe.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.