Jobs for gamers go beyond esports careers like shoutcasting. Your gaming skills are hugely in demand in a wide range of gaming career options you could enjoy.
Classic esports and gamer job roles:
- Agent
- Coach/analyst
- Pro gamer / esports champion or team player
- Esports shoutcaster/host
- Esports referee
- Esports observer
- Streamer / gaming influencer
- Games tester
Yes, gaming is a real career.
Those job roles above are gaming careers you probably already know about. Some of them could get you a regular salary, like being a games tester for an indie or AAA games studio. Some of them, like streaming, are more related to self employment. Being self employed in gaming is more likely to earn you money (or recognition) on the side until you build up your fanbase.
However, it’s important to recognise that esports is a huge industry, both in the UK and worldwide. It’s increasing in popularity, too. As esports increases, so does the money involved. The range of jobs you can do in the esports industry is increasing, too!
Then there’s the other side of gaming – games development. From games testing to coding, art design or even working in a development studio in a business, admin or marketing role will still keep you close to the games industry, so you can combine careers with your interests and passion.
What jobs are there for gamers?
Games Tester
Have you ever wanted to play video games for a living? Games Testers try out new games to see how well they work and whether they have any problems or bugs. It’s a vital part of the games development process. It can even be the difference between critical or commercial success and failure for a new game.
Journalist
There are so many gaming magazines and websites out there, like Polygon to name but one. As a gaming journalist you will build relationships with industry insiders. Your goal is to cover the latest gaming news, trends and opinions, conduct interviews, or do deep dives into a particular aspect of gaming. You’ll need to meet tight deadlines, but you can either work freelance or in-house with a permanent role at an organisation. You need to have a good eye for a story and be a voice your readers can trust.
You could also try your hand at writing for games. You can boost your portfolio by e.g. building a text adventure in Twine. You could also get involved in writing video game dialogue, though it’s a competitive market to get into. Many games these days are so rich in characterisation and choice-driven that even open world first person shooters can involve tens of thousands of line of dialogue!
Web developer
Every game and every games studio needs a website. Even big PC gaming platforms like Steam are essentially websites with downloadable aspects, online shops, reviews, video trailers, community chat, reviews and marketing.
As a web developer, you can work with gaming-related websites and apps. It’s fun to approach a studio’s online needs with an eye to what works well for the business AND for the gaming community. You’ll stay on top of tech trends and can focus purely on coding or branch out into design and usability (UX) to make the finest websites known to the human race.
Software developer / games programmer
This is different to being a web developer. You’ll need to learn completely different code, although the skills involved (passion for tech, eye for detail, problem solving when Things Go Wrong) are often the same.
Your role might change depending on where you work. In an indie game studio, you might come up with game concepts, storylines, characters and more. In a huge AAA studio, you might be working on a tiny piece of the puzzle.
You’ll never feel alone, because you’ll be working with a creative team of developers and designers to make the game a reality.
Pro gamer
Did you know you can now do a BTEC in esports? As a pro gamer you’ll work long hours and need lots of discipline to keep honing your craft as a solo champ or team player. You can earn money as a pro gamer in the same way physical athletes do, through sponsorship and tournaments. To be honest, you need really fast hand/eye reflexes to get ahead, and those reflexes will slow down in time. Much like sport, professional gaming is a career you can’t do for life. You can still get into it if that’s your passion, though! Your gaming skills will help you do well in the digital and gaming industry once you retire from pro gaming.
Video producer/broadcaster
Every video game needs a trailer, and every game tournament needs to be filmed and streamed. Video production and broadcasting is a really important job in gaming. You can often get into this role as a freelancer. Esports and video game full time jobs in this field can include being a studio operator, camera and sound operator, floor manager, technical director, lighting technician and more.
If you want to get into this industry, TV broadcasters often offer work experience placements, apprenticeships and graduate schemes.
PR manager / Social media manager
If a game lands in a forest and no-one plays it, is it a game at all? Every game studio or esports organisation needs marketing and PR. This can involve writing and sending out press releases, schmoozing journalists at events and launches, engaging and growing the fanbase, and keeping a really tight ship when it comes to social media. Your daily job can mean anything handling negative reviews in a fair and relatable way to making sure EVERYONE knows about a new game – for all the right reasons.
Jobs for gamers combine your passion and skills
As a gamer, you have some fantastic skills to apply to any career you like. You can multitask, focus, learn new things quickly, solve problems, face challenges, learn from mistakes… the list goes on.
People often say that gamers can be introverts. If you are, so what? It’s allowed. With gaming you can still gain skills confidence in communication, teamwork and leadership.
You can hone your gaming-adjacent life and work skills with free Young Professional Training.
You can also explore your gaming work skills with Game Academy!
See all gaming careers
