Games Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Gaming
South East > Thames Valley

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Games in permanent job vacancies in the Thames Valley. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries offered in vacancies that cited Games over the 6 months leading up to 14 January 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 142 160 160
Rank change year-on-year +18 0 -63
Permanent jobs citing Games 29 21 39
As % of all permanent jobs in the Thames Valley 0.72% 0.62% 0.99%
As % of the General category 1.25% 0.96% 1.81%
Number of salaries quoted 22 4 30
10th Percentile - £34,850 £41,400
25th Percentile £42,500 £41,375 £48,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £45,000 £57,000 £63,750
Median % change year-on-year -21.05% -10.59% -5.56%
75th Percentile £69,840 £67,000 £87,500
90th Percentile £75,000 - £100,000
South East median annual salary £45,000 £30,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +50.00% -42.86% -16.00%

All General Skills
Thames Valley

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 the Thames Valley.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for general skills 2,311 2,191 2,152
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 57.32% 64.75% 54.37%
Number of salaries quoted 1,183 738 1,286
10th Percentile £28,550 £31,750 £28,500
25th Percentile £33,500 £42,500 £36,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £57,500 £52,293
Median % change year-on-year -13.04% +9.96% -0.79%
75th Percentile £67,500 £73,833 £65,000
90th Percentile £80,000 £87,500 £78,875
South East median annual salary £45,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -18.18% +10.00% -9.09%

Games
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

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

Games job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Games
Salary Trend in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Games.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Games

Games
Salary Histogram in the Thames Valley

Salary distribution for jobs citing Games in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 14 January 2026.

Salary histogram for Games in the Thames Valley

Games
Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Games within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 14 January 2026. 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
Buckinghamshire +20 17 £45,000 -29.69% 6
Berkshire -4 11 £69,840 +125.29% 28
Oxfordshire +12 1 - - 19
Games
South East

Games
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley 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:

Cloud Services
1 5 (17.24%) AWS
2 3 (10.34%) Azure
2 3 (10.34%) Google Ads
2 3 (10.34%) Google Analytics
2 3 (10.34%) Microsoft Purview
2 3 (10.34%) Power Platform
3 1 (3.45%) Amazon ECS
3 1 (3.45%) Amazon S3
3 1 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
3 1 (3.45%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 2 (6.90%) 5G
1 2 (6.90%) 802.11
1 2 (6.90%) Broadband
1 2 (6.90%) Internet
1 2 (6.90%) LAN
1 2 (6.90%) Network Security
1 2 (6.90%) VoIP
1 2 (6.90%) WAN
1 2 (6.90%) Wi-Fi
1 2 (6.90%) Wireless
1 2 (6.90%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (10.34%) Power BI
1 3 (10.34%) SQL Server
General
1 19 (65.52%) Social Skills
2 15 (51.72%) Finance
3 13 (44.83%) Marketing
4 10 (34.48%) Electronics
4 10 (34.48%) Retail
5 2 (6.90%) Banking
5 2 (6.90%) Manufacturing
5 2 (6.90%) Telecoms
6 1 (3.45%) Public Sector
Job Titles
1 13 (44.83%) Marketing Manager
2 8 (27.59%) Lead
3 7 (24.14%) Channel Marketing Manager
4 4 (13.79%) Architect
4 4 (13.79%) AWS Infrastructure Lead
4 4 (13.79%) Infrastructure Team Leader
4 4 (13.79%) Team Leader
5 3 (10.34%) E-Commerce Manager
5 3 (10.34%) E-Commerce Marketing Manager
5 3 (10.34%) Senior
5 3 (10.34%) Senior Systems Engineer
5 3 (10.34%) Systems Engineer
6 2 (6.90%) Security Architect
6 2 (6.90%) Systems Architect
7 1 (3.45%) Full-Stack Engineer
7 1 (3.45%) Full-Stack Software Engineer
7 1 (3.45%) Lead Architect
7 1 (3.45%) Lecturer
7 1 (3.45%) Principal Architect
7 1 (3.45%) Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (6.90%) 802.1X
2 1 (3.45%) React
2 1 (3.45%) Spring
2 1 (3.45%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 3 (10.34%) Blog
2 2 (6.90%) BYOD
2 2 (6.90%) CCTV
2 2 (6.90%) IoT
3 1 (3.45%) Cloud Native
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (44.83%) Digital Marketing
2 10 (34.48%) B2B
2 10 (34.48%) B2C
2 10 (34.48%) Budget Control
2 10 (34.48%) Business Strategy
2 10 (34.48%) Demand Generation
2 10 (34.48%) E-Commerce
2 10 (34.48%) Pay per click
2 10 (34.48%) Planning and Forecasting
3 7 (24.14%) AI
3 7 (24.14%) Creative Marketing
4 5 (17.24%) CI/CD
4 5 (17.24%) DevOps
5 4 (13.79%) Generative AI
5 4 (13.79%) Infrastructure as Code
6 3 (10.34%) Analytics
6 3 (10.34%) Data Governance Strategy
6 3 (10.34%) Data Privacy
6 3 (10.34%) Machine Learning
6 3 (10.34%) Performance Metrics
Programming Languages
1 1 (3.45%) Java
Qualifications
1 3 (10.34%) Degree
1 3 (10.34%) Security Cleared
2 2 (6.90%) DV Cleared
3 1 (3.45%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 3 (10.34%) Accessibility
1 3 (10.34%) Data Quality
System Software
1 2 (6.90%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 1 (3.45%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 6 (20.69%) Google
2 2 (6.90%) Ruckus Wireless