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Some game-industry workers do change industries when they change jobs, but the available evidence does not show how many game workers specifically move into non-gaming work. A European survey found that 10% of job changes in the games sector in 2023–2024 involved a change of industry; it did not identify whether those moves were into or out of games. Layoffs and lengthy searches make the question especially relevant, but the figures vary by survey, region, and role.
What the available numbers actually show
The clearest measure of cross-industry movement comes from the European Commission’s European Media Industry Outlook 2025, which cites the Big Games Industry Employment Survey 2024. Among 1,387 respondents across 38 European countries, 10% of job changes in the games sector during 2023–2024 involved a change of industry. This describes the share of job changes, not the share of all game workers who left, and the report does not state the direction of those moves or name destination industries.
The same European source reports that three in four games professionals surveyed found a new job within six months of leaving a position. That is a measure of time to a new job, not evidence about whether the new role was inside or outside gaming.
In the survey’s account of job changes, 44% saw a salary increase, 24% a decrease, and 10% changed industry. Those are separate outcomes; changing industries does not by itself tell you whether a worker’s pay rose or fell.
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Why job seekers may be considering other industries
Layoffs are a significant part of the employment picture, though survey results should not be mistaken for a count of every worker in the industry. The GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry report, based on responses from more than 2,300 game-industry professionals, found that 28% of respondents had been laid off in the prior two years.
The GDC 2025 Game Industry Salary Report asked a different respondent group and reported that 24% of its 562 respondents to the layoff question had been laid off in the prior two years. The two percentages come from different surveys and samples, so they should not be read as a clean year-over-year trend.
How long the search can take
In the GDC 2025 Salary Report, nearly half of respondents who had experienced a layoff had not found another job. Among respondents who were still unemployed, 44% said they spent 6–10 hours a week looking for work. In that same still-unemployed group, 40% reported submitting at least 100 applications; the application-count question had 50 respondents.
The report also found that 90% of respondents who found work after a layoff said their new job was at least somewhat like their previous one. “Like” describes similarity, not industry: this result does not establish whether those jobs were in gaming or elsewhere.
Role and location can shape the options
The European Commission outlook describes different outcomes by occupation in the European survey it cites. Programmers remained in demand elsewhere in the games industry, while HR skills helped workers find other positions. QA/testing and art/design workers had more difficulty finding another job. These are survey-based observations, not guarantees about an individual’s prospects, and they do not establish that any one group is more likely to leave gaming.
Geography matters, too. The 10% industry-change finding concerns European games-sector job transitions. The GDC figures describe survey respondents in the game industry and measure layoffs or job-search experiences, not cross-industry moves. These results cannot be combined into a global estimate of how often game workers enter non-gaming jobs.
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How to approach a search beyond games
If you are considering roles outside gaming, start with the work you have done rather than the industry label on your résumé. This is a practical way to make your experience legible to employers in another field; the surveys cited here do not test whether it improves hiring outcomes.
Quick Recap
- Describe your work in terms of outputs and responsibilities. For example, a game programmer might emphasize software development and systems work; a QA tester, test planning and defect reporting; a producer, project coordination; an artist, visual creation; and an HR professional, people operations.
- Match that evidence to the target role. Use the job description to identify relevant requirements, then connect them to concrete examples from your work.
- Choose destinations based on fit, not an assumed industry-wide route. The available reports do not provide a breakdown of where game workers go after changing industries or identify one best destination sector.
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