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Game Tester: What the Job Is and How to Get Hired

A game tester finds what's broken in a game before players do, then proves it's fixed. It's one of the few game jobs you can sometimes get without a degree, and for some people it's the first job in the industry. Here's what the work is really like, how game testers get hired, what it pays and where it leads.

Kevin ToFounder & Editor B.S. in Computer Science, Temple University Updated

Two hands gripping a black game controller held over an open laptop keyboard.
$104,300 National Median Pay BLS May 2025
5.7% Projected Job Growth by 2035 BLS 2025-35
50% Of Workers Say the Job Needs a Bachelor's O*NET
On this page
  1. Game Tester in 60 Seconds
  2. What Does a Game Tester Do?
  3. What a Day in Game QA Is Really Like
  4. What Makes a Good QA Tester
  5. In-House QA, Outsourced QA and Contract Testing
  6. How to Write a Game Bug Report
  7. Game Testing Career Levels
  8. How to Get a Game QA Job
  9. Do You Need a Degree for Game QA?
  10. What Game QA Pays
  11. Where Game Testing Leads
  12. Job Outlook for QA Testers
  13. What to Know Before You Take a Testing Job
  14. Frequently Asked Questions
  15. Related Pages
  16. Sources

Game Tester in 60 Seconds

  • The bug report is the thing you produce. Each report needs a title naming the symptom and place, the build and platform, and numbered steps to reproduce. Add what you expected against what happened, a video or log, and a severity. Search the tracker first so you don't file duplicates. Bug Reports ›
  • Automation and QA engineering are the way up. Testers file reports, senior testers write test plans, and QA leads schedule a team and report quality to production. QA engineer and automation roles write code that tests the game for you, which pairs well with programming skills. Career Levels ›
  • Testing asks for less degree than most game jobs. In O*NET's survey of QA analysts and testers, 50% said a new hire needs a bachelor's, 26% an associate degree and 9% a certificate. A bachelor's matters more for moving into design or programming than for the testing job itself. Degree Needed ›
  • Entry-level testing pays near the bottom of the range. Software QA analysts and testers had a median of $104,300, but that describes QA as a career. The lowest-paid 10% earned under $61,440, and a new tester starts at the low end. QA lead, automation and QA engineering roles carry pay up the range. Salary ›
  • Ask whether testers move into other roles. Entry-level testing pays less than most game jobs and can be repetitive, and some roles are contract or seasonal. Ask how long the contract runs and whether overtime is paid. Treated as training, testing shows you how a game is built and who makes decisions. Before You Start ›

Heads up Most QA analyst jobs are outside games, so testing skills transfer to any software company if game work slows down.

The job

What Does a Game Tester Do?

A game tester plays builds of a game that isn't finished and looks for anything wrong: crashes, characters falling through the floor, quests that can't be completed, text that runs off the screen, a menu that breaks if you press two buttons at once. Finding the bug is the easy part. The job is reproducing it until you know exactly what triggers it, writing it up so a developer can fix it without asking you a single question, and then checking that the fix worked and didn't break something else.

BLS counts game testers with software quality assurance analysts and testers. O*NET's tasks for that occupation describe the professional version of the work:

Software QA tester tasks, per O*NET

Main tasks

  1. Identify, analyze, and document problems with program function, output, online screen, or content.
  2. Document software defects, using a bug tracking system, and report defects to software developers.
  3. Develop testing programs that address areas such as database impacts, software scenarios, regression testing, negative testing, error or bug retests, or usability.
  4. Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures.
  5. Document test procedures to ensure replicability and compliance with standards.

See all 10 tasks on O*NET ›

Job titles O*NET reports

  • Automation Tester
  • Information Technology Analyst
  • Quality Assurance Analyst
  • Quality Assurance Engineer
  • Quality Engineer
  • Software Quality Assurance Analyst
  • Software Quality Assurance Engineer
  • Software Quality Engineer
  • Software Test Engineer
  • Test Engineer

Education new hires need

  • High school diploma or equivalent 3%
  • Post-secondary certificate 9%
  • Some college courses 9%
  • Associate’s degree 26%
  • Bachelor’s degree 50%
  • Master’s degree 3%

Share of O*NET survey respondents (08/2022, 34 respondents) naming each level as what a new hire needs.

Source: O*NET OnLine, 15-1253.00 Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers, accessed ; education from the O*NET 31.0 database, Education (element 2.D.1, Required Level of Education).

Game Tester Versus QA Analyst

Federal data has no game tester line. BLS counts testers inside software quality assurance analysts and testers, about 186,740 jobs nationally. O*NET's sample titles for the occupation are Automation Tester, Information Technology Analyst, Quality Assurance Analyst, Quality Assurance Engineer, Quality Engineer, which read like business software titles. The overlap with games is real. Two of the tasks it lists are "Document software defects, using a bug tracking system, and report defects to software developers" and "Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures." Both are daily work in a studio.

Kinds of Testing in Games

  • Functionality testing checks that every feature does what it should, from menus to quests.
  • Regression testing rechecks old features and fixed bugs after each new build.
  • Compatibility testing runs the game on different consoles, graphics cards, phones and controllers.
  • Compliance testing checks the game against a platform holder's technical rules before release.
  • Localization testing checks translated text and voice for errors, overflow and context.
  • Playtesting gathers reactions from players about fun and clarity, and is often run by design or user research staff.
A day in the job

What a Day in Game QA Is Really Like

Your lead assigns you a section of the game and a test plan. Today it's one level, on one console, with a checklist: every door, every pickup, every save point. You play it the way a player would, then the way no player would: jumping into every corner, pausing during cutscenes, unplugging the controller mid-save. You find a spot where the player can climb out of the map. You try it twenty more times to pin down the exact angle and timing, record a video, and file a report with the steps, the build number and what you expected to happen.

After lunch a new build arrives with fixes from yesterday. You run regression tests, re-checking old bugs to confirm they're gone and nothing near them broke. By the end of the day you've played the same ten minutes of game more times than any player ever will. That's the job. If it sounds tedious, it partly is. If it sounds like a puzzle, you'll probably be good at it.

Skills

What Makes a Good QA Tester

  • Patience with repetition. You'll replay the same section dozens of times, and the bug is often on the thirtieth try.
  • Clear, exact writing. A report a developer can act on without asking you anything is worth more than ten vague ones.
  • Curiosity about how things break. The best testers think like someone trying to cheat the game.
  • Calm under deadlines. Testing gets busiest right before a release.
Where testers work

In-House QA, Outsourced QA and Contract Testing

Testers work in three kinds of places, and the job differs in each. In-house QA teams sit inside a studio or publisher, work next to the developers and often follow a game for its whole development. Outsourced QA companies test for many clients, so you may spend one month on a mobile title and the next on a console game. Contract testers join a team for the final stretch of a project and leave when it ships.

SettingGood forWatch out for
In-house QALearning one game deeply and meeting the whole teamFew openings, and juniors may start on contract
Outsourced QAVariety, volume and fast learningDistance from the developers and tight schedules
Contract or seasonalGetting a credit and a referenceGaps between projects and fewer benefits

Whichever you take, ask for credits and a reference on your way out. A shipped title on your résumé matters more than the job title attached to it.

Working With Developers

Testers and developers can fall out when a report is vague or a fix is dismissed. The best testers treat the developer as a partner. They give exact steps, keep opinions out of the report and say thanks when a hard bug gets fixed. If a developer says it works on their machine, offer to show the steps on theirs. Trust built this way is how testers get asked to join design reviews, and that is how they end up in the next role.

The craft

How to Write a Game Bug Report

The bug report is the thing a game tester produces, and it's the first thing a lead judges you on. Fill in the same fields every time.

  1. A short title that names the symptom and the place: "Player falls through floor after grapple hits moving platform, level 3."
  2. The build number and platform, so a developer opens the right version.
  3. Steps to reproduce, numbered, starting from a known state. If you can't reproduce it every time, say how often it happens.
  4. What you expected and what happened, in one sentence each.
  5. Evidence: a video, a screenshot or a log file.
  6. Severity, meaning how bad the effect is. A crash outranks a typo. Leads decide priority, which is about when it gets fixed.

One more habit: search the tracker before you file, so you add to a bug that exists and don't create a duplicate. O*NET also lists this task: "Develop or specify standards, methods, or procedures to determine product quality or release readiness." Senior testers do this by deciding when a build is ready to ship, which is where QA starts to have a say in the schedule.

Career ladder

Game Testing Career Levels

LevelWhat changes
TesterYou run test plans and file reports
Senior testerYou write test plans and mentor newer testers
QA leadYou schedule a team, report quality to production and set priorities
QA engineer or automationYou write code that tests the game for you
QA managerYou own the studio's quality process and staffing

The automation path pairs well with the game developer skills, because the people who build test tools need to read and write code.

Getting in

How to Get a Game QA Job

  1. Learn how professional QA works. Learn the vocabulary: test plans, regression testing, severity and priority, reproduction steps.
  2. Practice writing bug reports. Take any game you own, find a bug, and write it up as if a developer who's never seen it has to fix it. Clear writing is the skill leads hire for.
  3. Learn the tools. O*NET's "Hot Technology" list for the occupation includes Oracle Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition J2EE, Git, Selenium, Atlassian JIRA. A tracker like JIRA is the one you'll use every day.
  4. Apply widely. Studios hire testers directly, and outsourced testing companies hire for many studios at once. Contract and seasonal roles are one way in.
  5. Treat it as training. The testers who move up are building their next skill while they test.
Education

Do You Need a Degree for Game QA?

Less than for most game jobs. In O*NET's survey of software QA analysts and testers, 50% said a new hire needs a bachelor's degree, 26% an associate degree and 9% a postsecondary certificate. That survey covers QA careers generally, including QA engineers, so entry-level game testing is likely to be at the more open end of it.

A short program can help if you want structure. There are 51 associate programs in game design and game programming in the federal data, and the game design certificate guide covers when a short program is enough. If you're aiming to move from testing into design or programming, a bachelor's will matter more for that next step than for the testing job itself.

Pay

What Game QA Pays

The federal figure is for software QA analysts and testers: a median of $104,300 in May 2025, with the lowest-paid 10% under $61,440 and the top 10% over $167,010.

That median describes QA as a career, since the occupation's job titles are mostly analysts and engineers. An entry-level testing job pays near the bottom of the range, and the way up is through lead, automation and QA engineering roles. The salary page has the full spread and every state.

  • Salary Game tester salary $104,300 median (software quality assurance analysts and testers)
Where it leads

Where Game Testing Leads

Testing teaches you how games are built and how they break, which is useful almost anywhere on a team. The common paths out are QA leadership, QA engineering and test automation, production, and design. Each needs something extra. Automation needs programming. Production needs organization and communication. Design needs a portfolio of your own design work. If you want design, keep building levels or small games on your own time and make sure the design team knows you exist. The video game designer guide and game producer guide cover those next steps.

Outlook

Job Outlook for QA Testers

BLS projects employment of software QA analysts and testers to grow 5.7% from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all jobs, with about 10,700 openings a year. Most of those jobs are outside games, which is worth knowing: QA skills transfer to any software company if game work slows down.

The 5 states with the most QA analyst and tester jobs are California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Virginia, which hold about 42% of the occupation's jobs. Game testing teams are in studio cities and outsourced testing centers, and they hire in waves around releases. A seasonal job that ends after a launch isn't a failure. Ask early whether good contract testers get offered permanent roles.

The hard parts

What to Know Before You Take a Testing Job

Entry-level testing pays less than most game jobs and can be repetitive. Some roles are contract or seasonal, and hours can run long before a release. Ask how long the contract runs, whether overtime is paid, and how often testers have moved into other roles at that studio. A good answer to the last question tells you whether testing there is a door or a holding pen.

Testing Is Repetitive and Under-Credited

Testers find the bugs that players would otherwise hit, and when a game ships clean, nobody notices. When it ships broken, QA is often blamed even if the schedule left no time to test. Good leads protect testing time, and bad ones don't. You'll learn which kind you have within a few weeks.

Hours and Contracts

Testing is busiest before a release, and some contracts are short. Check whether overtime is paid, whether benefits come with the contract, and if you can work on the next project afterward. Entry-level wages at the low end of the range can be tight, as the 10th percentile of $61,440 a year shows.

Is It Worth Starting Here?

It is if you treat it as training. Testers learn how a game is built, how a team talks about problems and who makes decisions. That is useful for a design or production career and for QA itself. If you want to compare testing with the other first jobs, the careers hub lists them side by side, and the is game design a good career article covers the wider trade-offs.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What Does a Game Tester Do?

A game tester plays builds of a game that isn't finished, looks for anything that's broken, reproduces each problem until they can describe exactly how to trigger it, and writes it up in a bug tracker so a developer can fix it. Then they check the fix. Clear writing matters as much as sharp eyes, because a bug nobody can reproduce rarely gets fixed. See what a game tester's day is really like.

How Do I Become a Game Tester?

Learn how professional QA works, practice writing clear bug reports, and apply for entry-level or contract QA roles at studios and outsourced testing companies. A degree helps for QA careers but isn't always required for an entry-level testing job. In O*NET's survey of software QA analysts and testers, 50% said a new hire needs a bachelor's degree. A tester who can read code and write tools stands out. See the path in order.

How Much Do Game Testers Make?

BLS counts testers as software QA analysts and testers, whose national median was $104,300 in BLS May 2025. That group is mostly QA analysts and engineers, so an entry-level testing job pays toward the bottom of the range, where the 10th percentile was $61,440. The median is a career figure, not a starting wage. The game tester salary page has the full spread and every state.

Do Game Testers Just Play Games All Day?

No. Testers play the same section many times, often in ways no player would, to find what breaks. Much of the job is careful repetition and writing, not playing for fun. A day usually means running test plans, logging bugs with steps to reproduce them, rechecking fixes and reporting on release readiness. The work is more like quality control than play, which suits patient people who like details. See a tester's day.

Do You Need a Degree to Be a Game Tester?

Not always. In O*NET's survey of software QA analysts and testers, 50% said a new hire needs a bachelor's degree, 26% an associate degree and 9% a postsecondary certificate. Those shares describe QA across all software, not only games. Many studios hire entry-level testers on skill and reliability, but a degree helps if you want to move into QA engineering or another discipline later. See the full degree answer.

Can Game Testing Lead to a Design Job?

It can. Testers learn how games are built and broken, and some move into design, production or QA engineering. It works best when you build skills for the next job while you test: learn the tools, write clear reports, and show your work to the people in the discipline you want. Most QA jobs are outside games, so those skills also carry to other software work. See where game testing leads.

What Is the Job Outlook for Game Testers?

BLS projects employment of software QA analysts and testers to grow 5.7% from 2025 to 2035, against 3.5% for all jobs, with about 10,700 openings a year. Most of those jobs are outside games, so the figure is a guide to QA as a career. Game testing teams hire in waves around releases, and QA skills transfer to any software company if game work slows down. See the full job outlook.

Keep exploring

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Sources

  1. 1 O*NET OnLine, 15-1253.00 Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers Tasks, education survey and Hot Technology software, quoted as published. Accessed .
  2. 2 BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: 15-1253 National wages for software QA analysts and testers. Accessed .
  3. 3 BLS, Employment Projections 2025-35 Projected employment change and openings. Accessed .
  4. 4 NCES, IPEDS Completions Count of associate programs in game design and game programming.