GameSoundCon, the largest professional conference for video-game music and sound design, have released the results of their recent survey about employment, salaries, royalties and education in the game-sound industry.
A total of 654 people responded to the survey — one of the most referenced of its kind in the video-game industry — the vast majority of them being game audio professionals such as composers, sound designers and middleware and audio programmers for AAA, Midcore and Indie games.
The 2025 survey included new questions on industry layoffs, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in game audio, and how long it takes post graduation for new hires to find a job. The survey also looks at some trends that GameSoundCon organisers have seen emerging since the first survey was conducted in 2014. ‘Outsourcing’, for example, has shown an increase, meaning a growing career path in game audio is to be an employee of an audio outsourcing company. The most striking find this year is that the average income for both salaried employees and freelancers were up by approximately 20% compared to those declared in the 2023 survey.
The full results of the survey can be found via the link below.
