There has been a general increase in the income of game developers in Japan and a significant increase in the mobility of talent in the industry

The report Employment and Career Composition of Game Developers 2025, published on 6 January 2026 by the Japan Association of Computer Entertainment Providers (CESA), shows a positive trend in the income of game developers in the country. The survey was based on 339 questionnaires collected last year by the Congress of Computer Entertainment Developers, which included business game developers, educators and university students.

According to the data, nearly 78 per cent of game developers indicated that their income increased between 2023 and 2024. The average annual income of a developer during this period is about Yen 9.3 million (approximately US$ 5.25 million) and that of an individual is about Yen 6.7 million (approximately US$ 4.23 million). The distribution of income increases varied: around 19.5 per cent of respondents increased their salaries by more than 20 per cent, 14.5 per cent by more than 10 per cent, 18.6 per cent by more than 5 per cent and 25.4 per cent by a slight increase of 0-5 per cent.

The survey also revealed the “high mobility” character of the game industry in Japan. More than half of the developers (55.2 per cent) indicated that they had changed employers in their careers — a proportion that was particularly significant in Japan, where the traditional lifelong employment system was more prevalent. Data on the length of service show that about 36 per cent of respondents work for less than three years in the current company, 26 per cent for 3-6 years and 13.6 per cent for 6-9 years. The report reflects the new dynamics of the Japanese game industry in terms of pay growth and brain mobility, which may stem from the effects of the expansion of the global game market, the acceleration of home-grown developers’ access to the sea and the surge in demand for digital entertainment during the epidemic. It is noteworthy that, despite the overall increase in industry revenues, the long-term retention rate of senior developers remains to be observed.