Games Contracts in the UK excluding London

Gaming
UK > UK excluding London

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Games in contract job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Games over the 6 months leading up to 17 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 294 341 356
Rank change year-on-year +47 +15 +3
Contract jobs citing Games 54 54 95
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.42% 0.27% 0.41%
As % of the General category 0.67% 0.49% 0.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 20 32 82
10th Percentile £189 £208 £214
25th Percentile £249 £228 £325
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £348 £375 £450
Median % change year-on-year -7.33% -16.67% -10.00%
75th Percentile £502 £506 £573
90th Percentile £650 £619 £738
UK median daily rate £400 £401 £489
% change year-on-year -0.31% -17.90% -2.25%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 11 0
10th Percentile £13.78 £6.57 -
25th Percentile £30.25 £14.45 -
Median hourly rate £33.91 £21.10 -
Median % change year-on-year +60.71% - -
75th Percentile £62.25 £51.84 -
90th Percentile £86.40 £63.75 -
UK median hourly rate £35.00 £39.92 £60.00
% change year-on-year -12.32% -33.47% +37.93%

All General Skills
UK excluding London

Games falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring common skills in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for common skills 8,105 11,039 13,015
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 62.42% 54.41% 56.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 4,973 6,308 8,884
10th Percentile £210 £208 £230
25th Percentile £361 £363 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £595 £600
90th Percentile £651 £688 £693
UK median daily rate £520 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -0.95% -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 589 1,647 745
10th Percentile £13.25 £12.50 £13.35
25th Percentile £16.02 £15.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £24.50 £28.25 £29.00
Median % change year-on-year -13.27% -2.59% +52.63%
75th Percentile £54.01 £53.75 £61.25
90th Percentile £75.00 £67.38 £69.50
UK median hourly rate £27.45 £30.00 £32.60
% change year-on-year -8.50% -7.96% +44.87%

Games
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Games as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Games in the UK excluding London

Games
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Games in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Games in the UK excluding London

Games
Daily Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Games in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 17 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Games in the UK excluding London

Games
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Games in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Games in the UK excluding London

Games
Hourly Rate Histogram in the UK excluding London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Games in the UK excluding London over the 6 months to 17 May 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Games in the UK excluding London

Games
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Games within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 17 May 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Midlands +28 29 £258 +14.44% 114
West Midlands +19 25 £219 -2.78% 69
North of England +16 12 £475 -5.00% 264
East of England +21 7 £344 -8.33% 76
North West +19 7 £475 +47.29% 174
Yorkshire +9 5 £600 +14.29% 54
East Midlands +9 4 £316 -24.40% 44
Scotland - 4 £525 - 39
South East +46 2 - - 199
Games
UK

Games
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 1 (1.85%) Apache
1 1 (1.85%) Apache Spark
1 1 (1.85%) CMS
Applications
1 6 (11.11%) Maya
2 4 (7.41%) NUKE
2 4 (7.41%) Simulink
3 3 (5.56%) Microsoft Excel
4 1 (1.85%) Adobe Captivate
4 1 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
4 1 (1.85%) Photoshop
4 1 (1.85%) ZBrush
Business Applications
1 2 (3.70%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (1.85%) SAP BPC
2 1 (1.85%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 3 (5.56%) Dynamics 365
2 2 (3.70%) Azure
2 2 (3.70%) Azure DevOps
2 2 (3.70%) Power Platform
3 1 (1.85%) Cloud Computing
Communications & Networking
1 4 (7.41%) Ethernet
2 2 (3.70%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (3.70%) PostgreSQL
1 2 (3.70%) Power BI
1 2 (3.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 4 (7.41%) Git
2 3 (5.56%) Plastic SCM
3 2 (3.70%) JIRA
4 1 (1.85%) TeamCity
General
1 13 (24.07%) Social Skills
2 7 (12.96%) Analytical Skills
2 7 (12.96%) Finance
3 6 (11.11%) Automotive
3 6 (11.11%) Retail
4 5 (9.26%) Manufacturing
4 5 (9.26%) Polish Language
5 4 (7.41%) Electronics
6 2 (3.70%) Banking
6 2 (3.70%) Pharmaceutical
7 1 (1.85%) Aerospace
7 1 (1.85%) Legal
7 1 (1.85%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 14 (25.93%) Senior
2 6 (11.11%) Designer
2 6 (11.11%) Developer
2 6 (11.11%) Games Designer
2 6 (11.11%) Technical Designer
3 5 (9.26%) Analyst
3 5 (9.26%) Senior Designer
3 5 (9.26%) Senior Games Designer
4 4 (7.41%) Compliance Executive
4 4 (7.41%) Games Developer
5 3 (5.56%) Lead
5 3 (5.56%) Software Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) Animator
6 2 (3.70%) Customer Service Advisor
6 2 (3.70%) Data Analyst
6 2 (3.70%) Firmware Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) FPGA Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) Lecturer
6 2 (3.70%) Principal Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 8 (14.81%) Unity (Game Engine)
1 8 (14.81%) Unreal Engine
2 6 (11.11%) CSS
2 6 (11.11%) HTML
3 5 (9.26%) Django
4 3 (5.56%) RESTful
5 1 (1.85%) Blazor
5 1 (1.85%) V-Ray
Miscellaneous
1 9 (16.67%) Virtual Reality
2 8 (14.81%) Animation
3 6 (11.11%) Mobile Games
4 4 (7.41%) Algorithms
4 4 (7.41%) FPGA
4 4 (7.41%) PCIe
4 4 (7.41%) Verilog
5 3 (5.56%) Data Protection Act
5 3 (5.56%) Online Games
6 2 (3.70%) Augmented Reality
6 2 (3.70%) Onboarding
6 2 (3.70%) Self-Motivation
7 1 (1.85%) Data Structures
7 1 (1.85%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
7 1 (1.85%) Hybrid Cloud
7 1 (1.85%) Life Science
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (20.37%) Artificial Intelligence
2 9 (16.67%) Problem-Solving
3 8 (14.81%) User Experience
4 7 (12.96%) Agile
5 6 (11.11%) CI/CD
5 6 (11.11%) Stakeholder Management
6 5 (9.26%) Computer Science
6 5 (9.26%) Decision-Making
6 5 (9.26%) DevOps
6 5 (9.26%) Game Development
6 5 (9.26%) Test Automation
7 4 (7.41%) API Development
7 4 (7.41%) Cryptography
7 4 (7.41%) Data Management
7 4 (7.41%) Generative AI
7 4 (7.41%) Machine Learning
7 4 (7.41%) Physics
7 4 (7.41%) Proactive Management
7 4 (7.41%) Project Management
7 4 (7.41%) Regulatory Compliance
Programming Languages
1 9 (16.67%) Java
1 9 (16.67%) Python
2 8 (14.81%) SQL
2 8 (14.81%) Tcl
3 7 (12.96%) TypeScript
4 5 (9.26%) C#
4 5 (9.26%) C++
5 4 (7.41%) MATLAB
5 4 (7.41%) SystemVerilog
6 2 (3.70%) JavaScript
7 1 (1.85%) PowerShell
7 1 (1.85%) R
Qualifications
1 6 (11.11%) Degree
2 4 (7.41%) HNC
2 4 (7.41%) HND
2 4 (7.41%) SC Cleared
2 4 (7.41%) Security Cleared
3 1 (1.85%) CCA
3 1 (1.85%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (1.85%) ISEB
3 1 (1.85%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (16.67%) QA
2 4 (7.41%) DO-254
2 4 (7.41%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 4 (7.41%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 1 (1.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 4 (7.41%) Actel
1 4 (7.41%) Altera
1 4 (7.41%) Intel
1 4 (7.41%) Microsemi
1 4 (7.41%) Xilinx
2 3 (5.56%) Databricks
3 2 (3.70%) BT
3 2 (3.70%) ForgeRock
3 2 (3.70%) Microsoft
3 2 (3.70%) Ping Identity
4 1 (1.85%) Adobe
4 1 (1.85%) Anaplan
4 1 (1.85%) Autodesk
4 1 (1.85%) Hyperion
4 1 (1.85%) Perforce
4 1 (1.85%) SAP