“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a question that parents and relatives usually ask their children. And if you were born in the nineties and was asked the exact same question, you would probably be one of those kids who’d say they want to be a doctor, a lawyer, a politician, an engineer or a businessman. These are the traditional professions that our parents and grandparents would tell us to pursue. But if you try asking a kid or a teenager this question today, how do you think they’d respond?
With the advancements in technology and the changes in our culture and society, you’d probably get more YouTubers, vloggers, streamers, and professional gamers as answers than these traditional jobs most of us were told to pursue as kids. Not a lot of people are probably aware of this, but the video game industry has actually surpassed both the film and music industries combined. Don’t believe it? Then maybe these numbers will convince you.
According to Statista, global box office revenue in 2018 was $41.7 bn whereas, the music industry was at $19.1 bn as shown in the IFPI Global Music Report of 2019. Add those two and you get a total of $60.8 bn. In contrast, the video game industry was already hitting more than a hundred billion dollars with an astounding market value of $152.1 bn as reported by GamingScan. That accounts for more than half of the entertainment business!
Now that we’ve realized that gaming is actually dominating one of the most lucrative businesses in the world, then why are we still cynical about our kids wanting to become professional E-sports players or streamers? Perhaps, it is time to focus the spotlight on the flourishing gaming culture.
Gaming opens employment opportunities
Gaming has become an economy of its own right, raking in more than the well-established segments in entertainment and hosting various leagues and tournaments in various parts of the world. The effects of a burgeoning gaming industry can be felt all throughout the economy and the society as it opens more work opportunities and career options.
A report also generated by GamingScan asserts that in the U.S. alone, the video game industry grew by 9% from 2018 to 2019 which was 4 times the growth rate of the economy for the whole country. In addition, direct employment for the industry also increased by 9%, which was 13 times the growth rate of the U.S. labor market. Overall, there were 146,000 people employed directly and indirectly in the gaming industry.
It’s safe to say that gaming has not only been helpful to reduce stress and anxiety, but it has also contributed greatly to opening more employment opportunities as game designers, software developers, producers, audio engineers, animators, professional gamers, streamers, and many others. While a lot of people probably dream of being a big YouTuber or a professional gamer bagging more than hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars every year, being an average video game developer in the gaming scene, on the other hand, is not actually bad at all. According to Glassdoor, the national average salary of a video game designer in the U.S. is $65,278 per year depending on tenure and breadth of experience whereas, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor claims that the median pay for an average worker in the U.S. with a forty-hour workweek is only $919 a week or about $47,919 per year which is still below the average salary of a video game designer if you want to compare.
The dream is still definitely to be amongst the ranks of the top-grossing streamers and professional gamers in the world today, but apart from those careers, the ever-changing global gaming scene has given birth to other professions that although may not be as remunerative as those posts at the top of the chain, are also financially rewarding for those interested in starting a career in the video game industry.
