Moderate Growth Amid Shifting Talent Demand
The newly released 2025 Croner Software Games Survey – North America reveals that total compensation for software gaming professionals increased moderately in 2025, continuing a pattern of steady – but cautious – growth across the industry.
While overall pay growth remained measured, several roles and specialties experienced stronger upward momentum, reflecting evolving talent needs across gaming platforms including mobile, PC, console, MMOG, social, cloud and handheld games.
SUPPORT-LEVEL GAMING ROLES SAW THE LARGEST PAY GAINS
Among all job levels, support-level software gaming positions recorded the highest year-over-year compensation increases. This growth was primarily driven by:
- Higher base salaries
- Expanded short-term incentive (bonus) payouts
These increases signal a renewed focus on retaining foundational talent as development pipelines grow more complex and service-driven.
INCENTIVE PAY REMAINS BELOW TARGET IN THE U.S. AND CANADA
Despite modest salary growth, annual short-term incentives continue to fall below target levels:
- In the United States, bonus payouts showed only limited improvement compared to 2023 and 2024
- In Canada, annual bonuses were paid even further below target than in the prior two years
This trend highlights ongoing cost controls and cautious incentive funding across North American gaming organizations.
“HOT” GAMING JOBS IN 2025
Several job families stood out as high-growth positions with material increases in base salary year over year, including:
- Legal Services / Counsel
- Quality Assurance Engineering
- Quality Assurance Analysis
- Quality Assurance
The continued emphasis on QA and legal expertise reflects heightened regulatory scrutiny, live-ops complexity and quality expectations across platforms.
AI AND MACHINE LEARNING ENGINEERS COMMAND TOP PAY
Among senior professional engineering roles in the U.S., Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Engineers earned the highest base salaries in 2025.
AI / ML compensation outpaced other engineering specialties, including:
- Security
- Graphics Rendering
- DevOps
- Database
- Tools Software
- Data Engineering
- Engine Software
- Server Engineering
- Gameplay Engineering
- Platform Engineering
- Quality Assurance Engineering
This reinforces AI and machine learning as mission-critical capabilities in modern game development and live service environments.
CANADIAN MARKET HIGHLIGHTS: GAMEPLAY LEADERSHIP AND REMOTE WORK
In Canada, Lead Gameplay Engineers experienced notable base salary growth, underscoring strong demand for senior technical leadership.
Additionally, the prevalence of permanent remote employees increased in both Alberta and Ontario, reflecting continued flexibility in workforce models.
ABOUT THE CRONER SOFTWARE GAMES SURVEY
The Croner Software Games Survey – North America is widely regarded as the benchmark compensation resource for the entertainment software industry in the U.S. and Canada.
The 2025 report includes:
- Compensation data from 51 U.S.-based companies and 30 Canada-based companies
- Salary insights for 527 unique gaming positions in the U.S.
- Salary insights for 167 unique gaming positions in Canada
Croner also publishes the Software Games Survey – International, which serves gaming companies with operations in the U.K., Europe and Asia. The 2025 international report analyzes compensation practices across:
- 26 leading software gaming companies
- 264 industry-specific positions
- 13 countries worldwide
For more information about participation in a Croner survey, please contact Laurie Krashanoff, Manager, Account Relations, at +(415) 485-5521 or laurie@croner.com.
Follow this link to find out more about The Croner Company’s compensation surveys.