Games Job Trends in Manchester

Gaming
North West > Manchester

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Games in permanent job vacancies in Manchester. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Games over the 6 months leading up to 31 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 106 118 119
Rank change year-on-year +12 +1 -85
Permanent jobs citing Games 25 42 25
As % of all permanent jobs in Manchester 0.91% 1.53% 1.11%
As % of the General category 1.44% 2.24% 1.94%
Number of salaries quoted 19 29 19
10th Percentile £21,500 £24,196 £37,250
25th Percentile £36,875 £41,625 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £80,000 £77,500 £65,000
90th Percentile £88,500 £77,750 £67,983
North West median annual salary £47,500 £52,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -9.52% -4.55% -

All General Skills
Manchester

Games falls under the General Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring general skills in Manchester.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for general skills 1,736 1,872 1,288
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in Manchester 63.15% 67.97% 57.09%
Number of salaries quoted 893 768 965
10th Percentile £27,750 £31,250 £30,200
25th Percentile £32,500 £41,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £55,000 £57,662
Median % change year-on-year -9.09% -4.62% +4.84%
75th Percentile £72,500 £72,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £87,500 £87,500 £85,000
North West median annual salary £47,500 £51,000 £51,500
% change year-on-year -6.86% -0.97% -1.90%

Games
Job Vacancy Trend in Manchester

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Games relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in Manchester.

Games job vacancy trend in Manchester

Games
Salary Trend in Manchester

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Games.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in Manchester citing Games

Games
Salary Histogram in Manchester

Salary distribution for jobs citing Games in Manchester over the 6 months to 31 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Games in Manchester

Games
Job Locations in Manchester

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Games within the Manchester region over the 6 months to 31 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Stockport +6 1 - -
Oldham - 1 - -
Games
North West

Games
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Manchester by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 1 (4.00%) Confluence
Applications
1 3 (12.00%) Spreadsheet
2 2 (8.00%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (4.00%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 1 (4.00%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 9 (36.00%) AWS
2 2 (8.00%) Power Platform
3 1 (4.00%) Cloudflare
3 1 (4.00%) GCP
3 1 (4.00%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (4.00%) DNS
1 1 (4.00%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (16.00%) NoSQL
2 3 (12.00%) MySQL
3 2 (8.00%) Power BI
3 2 (8.00%) Tableau
4 1 (4.00%) Redis
Development Applications
1 2 (8.00%) Jenkins
2 1 (4.00%) Git
2 1 (4.00%) JIRA
General
1 3 (12.00%) Analytical Skills
1 3 (12.00%) Billing
1 3 (12.00%) Finance
2 2 (8.00%) Presentation Skills
2 2 (8.00%) Social Skills
3 1 (4.00%) Banking
3 1 (4.00%) Electronics
3 1 (4.00%) Influencing Skills
3 1 (4.00%) Manufacturing
3 1 (4.00%) Retail
Job Titles
1 9 (36.00%) Developer
2 7 (28.00%) Lead
3 5 (20.00%) Games Developer
4 4 (16.00%) .NET Developer
5 3 (12.00%) Lead Developer
5 3 (12.00%) Senior
5 3 (12.00%) Software Engineer
5 3 (12.00%) Team Leader
6 2 (8.00%) Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Java Developer
6 2 (8.00%) Java Engineer
6 2 (8.00%) Java Software Engineer
6 2 (8.00%) Java Team Leader
6 2 (8.00%) Lead Java Developer
6 2 (8.00%) Lead Software Engineer
6 2 (8.00%) React Developer
6 2 (8.00%) Senior Architect
6 2 (8.00%) Senior Manager
7 1 (4.00%) Junior PHP Developer
7 1 (4.00%) Online Project Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (20.00%) CSS
1 5 (20.00%) HTML
2 4 (16.00%) .NET
2 4 (16.00%) .NET Framework
3 3 (12.00%) React
3 3 (12.00%) RESTful
4 2 (8.00%) WinForms
5 1 (4.00%) AngularJS
5 1 (4.00%) Electron
5 1 (4.00%) GraphQL
5 1 (4.00%) Laravel
5 1 (4.00%) Node.js
5 1 (4.00%) REST
5 1 (4.00%) Svelte
5 1 (4.00%) Unity (Game Engine)
5 1 (4.00%) Unreal Engine
5 1 (4.00%) Vue
5 1 (4.00%) Web Services
5 1 (4.00%) WebSockets
5 1 (4.00%) WPF
Miscellaneous
1 3 (12.00%) Online Games
2 2 (8.00%) PlayStation
2 2 (8.00%) Self-Motivation
2 2 (8.00%) Sports Betting
2 2 (8.00%) Xbox
3 1 (4.00%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 1 (4.00%) Linux
1 1 (4.00%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (32.00%) CI/CD
2 7 (28.00%) Continuous Improvement
3 5 (20.00%) AI
4 4 (16.00%) Agile
4 4 (16.00%) API Integration
4 4 (16.00%) DevOps
4 4 (16.00%) Mentoring
4 4 (16.00%) Migration
4 4 (16.00%) Stakeholder Management
4 4 (16.00%) Technical Leadership
5 3 (12.00%) Clean Code
5 3 (12.00%) Coaching
5 3 (12.00%) CRM
5 3 (12.00%) E-Commerce
5 3 (12.00%) Machine Learning
5 3 (12.00%) Problem-Solving
5 3 (12.00%) Project Management
5 3 (12.00%) Software Engineering
5 3 (12.00%) Strategic Thinking
5 3 (12.00%) Test Automation
Programming Languages
1 6 (24.00%) Java
2 5 (20.00%) JavaScript
3 4 (16.00%) C#
3 4 (16.00%) SQL
4 3 (12.00%) TypeScript
5 1 (4.00%) PHP
Qualifications
1 3 (12.00%) Degree
2 2 (8.00%) PMI Certification
2 2 (8.00%) PMP
3 1 (4.00%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (4.00%) QA
1 1 (4.00%) SLA
System Software
1 3 (12.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 2 (8.00%) Kubernetes
2 1 (4.00%) Grafana
2 1 (4.00%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 3 (12.00%) ServiceNow
2 2 (8.00%) Anaplan
2 2 (8.00%) Apple
2 2 (8.00%) Genesys
2 2 (8.00%) Microsoft
2 2 (8.00%) Samsung
2 2 (8.00%) SolarWinds
2 2 (8.00%) Verint
3 1 (4.00%) Freshdesk
3 1 (4.00%) Google
3 1 (4.00%) Siemens
3 1 (4.00%) Splunk