Game Tester Salary for 2027

Game Tester Salary in 60 Seconds

• Testers are counted as software QA analysts. Most job titles in that occupation are analysts and engineers who design test plans and write automated tests. So the $104,300 median is what a QA career pays across software, and a first game testing job sits closer to the bottom of the range. What It Measures ›
• A first testing job likely starts near $61,440. That holds for a first job without a degree or automation skills. Some studios hire testers hourly or on fixed-term contracts, so read the offer for the hourly rate, the expected hours and whether overtime is paid. Entry Level ›
• Scripts turn a bug finder into an engineer. Writing scripts that run checks for you is a different job and is paid like one. Test planning, clear bug reports and console, mobile and PC platform knowledge help too, and many first jobs are hourly or through a staffing company. Raising Your Pay ›
• California leads and West Virginia trails. California's median is $128,740, then Washington at $128,480 and Colorado at $123,690. West Virginia's is $62,300. The figures cover all software QA, not only games, and aren't adjusted for living costs. State Pay ›
• QA employment is projected to grow 5.7%. That beats the 3.5% for all occupations, from 187,600 to 198,200 jobs, with about 10,700 openings a year. The projections don't break out game testing, and hiring there runs in cycles tied to release schedules. Job Outlook ›

Heads up Many first testing jobs are hourly, fixed-term or through a staffing company, so a short contract can leave unpaid gaps between jobs.

Read this first

What the QA Tester Pay Figure Measures

BLS counts testers with software quality assurance analysts and testers. The job titles O*NET lists for that occupation are Automation Tester, Information Technology Analyst, Quality Assurance Analyst, Quality Assurance Engineer, Quality Engineer, Software Quality Assurance Analyst. Those are mostly analysts and engineers who design test plans and write automated tests, not entry-level testers working through a build by hand.

So the $104,300 median is what a QA career pays across the whole software industry. A first game testing job is closer to the bottom of the range. Expect that, and you won't be surprised by your first offer.

The range

How Much QA Testers Make

The lowest-paid 10% of software QA analysts and testers earned under $61,440, and the lowest quarter under $80,310. The middle half earned $80,310 to $133,180, and the top 10% over $167,010. In hourly terms the median is $50. About 186,740 people work in the occupation nationally.

Lowest 10%

$61,440

$29.54/hr

25th percentile

$80,310

$38.61/hr

Median

$104,300

$50.14/hr

75th percentile

$133,180

$64.03/hr

Top 10%

$167,010

$80.29/hr

The top 10% earned 2.7 times what the bottom 10% did. For anyone searching for a QA tester salary, that spread is the main fact on the page. Two people with the same job title can sit at opposite ends of it, and the difference is usually skill, scope and employer, not years alone.

Percentiles

QA Tester Pay by Percentile

A percentile tells you what share of workers earned less. It's a better way to read a game tester salary than an average, because an average hides the gap between a first-year tester and a QA lead. Here are all five points BLS publishes for the occupation.

How to Read the Steps Between Them

It takes $23,990 to get from the 25th percentile to the median, and $28,880 to get from the median to the 75th. The climb from the 75th to the 90th is $33,830. The steps get bigger as you go up, which is how a technical career normally behaves. The first raises come from doing the job well, and the large ones come from taking on work that fewer people can do.

For an hourly view, the median works out to $50 an hour, which implies about 2080 paid hours a year. On that same schedule, the 10th percentile is about $29.54 an hour and the 25th is about $38.61. Those are useful numbers when a studio offers you an hourly contract and you need to compare it with a salaried offer.

Starting out

Video Game Tester Salary at Entry Level

BLS doesn't publish game testing pay or pay by experience. What you can say from the federal range is that the bottom tenth of the occupation earned under $61,440, and a first testing job without a degree or automation skills is likely to start near there. Some studios hire testers hourly or on fixed-term contracts, so read the offer for the hourly rate, the expected hours, and whether overtime is paid.

Whether testing pays off depends on what you do with it. Testers who learn to write automated tests, read code and use the same tracking tools the developers use move toward the middle of the range. O*NET's "Hot Technology" list for the occupation includes Oracle Java 2 Platform Enterprise Edition J2EE, Git, Selenium, Atlassian JIRA.

The full Hot Technology list also names IBM SPSS Statistics, SAS, The MathWorks MATLAB, Atlassian Bitbucket, GitLab, Red Hat OpenShift, Spring Boot, Tableau. You don't need all of them. Pick the one or two that appear in the job listings you actually want, and learn those well enough to talk about a real thing you did with each.

Raising your pay

What Moves Game QA Pay Up

Federal data can't tell you what a raise is worth in games specifically, but the work O*NET describes shows where the extra pay comes from. Testers who move toward the middle and top of the range tend to do some mix of the following.

• Automation. Writing scripts that run checks for you turns a person who finds bugs into a person who prevents them. That's a different job, and it's paid like one.
• Test planning. O*NET lists tasks such as "Design test plans, scenarios, scripts, or procedures" and "Document test procedures to ensure replicability and compliance with standards." Planning what to test, and why, is senior work.
• Clear reports. A bug report a programmer can act on at once saves everyone time, and leads remember who writes them.
• Platform knowledge. Knowing how console, mobile and PC releases differ makes you useful at the end of a project, when the checks are strictest.
• Moving sideways. Production, design and tools work are all open to testers who show initiative, and some of those roles sit higher in the pay table below.

Hourly, Contract and Salaried Work

Many first testing jobs are hourly, fixed-term or through a staffing company. That changes what a number means. A contract that ends after a project has no paid time between jobs, usually has fewer benefits, and may not renew. A salaried position with benefits can be worth more than a higher hourly rate that stops in four months. When you compare offers, ask how long the work is expected to last, whether overtime is paid at a higher rate, and whether contractors can be converted to staff.

Crunch and the Hours You'll Work

Testing demand is not even across a project. It rises sharply as a release date approaches, which is when long weeks are most likely. Some studios pay overtime and plan for it, and some don't. This is general to the game industry and not something BLS measures, so ask about it directly in interviews. A pay figure that looks fine can look different once you count the hours behind it.

By state

QA Tester Salary by State

California has the highest published median, $128,740, then Washington at $128,480 and Colorado at $123,690. The lowest is West Virginia, at $62,300. California, Texas, New York together employ about 31% of the occupation. These figures cover all software QA, not only games, and aren't adjusted for living costs.

What Drives QA Tester Pay by State

BLS publishes a median for 46 states and districts. 13 of them are above the national median of $104,300. The gap between the highest and lowest state median is $66,440, so where you work can matter as much as which step of the ladder you're on. California employs the most people in the occupation, about 27,710.

High state medians are often found where software employers are concentrated and living costs are high. A game tester salary in those places has to cover higher rent, so compare a state's pay against what it costs to live there before you move for a job. Remote and hybrid QA work exists, but studios often ask testers to be on site when a build needs hands-on device or console checks.

Where it leads

Where a Game Testing Job Can Lead

Testing is one of the few game jobs that doesn't always ask for a degree, and in O*NET's survey of the occupation, 50% said a new hire needs bachelor’s degree, 26% said a new hire needs associate’s degree or other 2-year degree, 9% said a new hire needs post-secondary certificate. That makes it a common first step for people who want to work in games and don't have a portfolio yet.

From testing, the paths go three ways. Into QA engineering, where test automation pushes pay toward the occupation's median and above. Into design or production, if you learn the tools and show you understand how the game works. Or into software development, where the median was $135,980. None of these happen by waiting. Testers who move up learn in the evenings, build something of their own, and make sure the leads know what they can do.

The game tester career guide covers how people get hired. If you're aiming for design, the video game designer guide and the video game designer salary page show what that next step pays.

Before you accept

What to Check in a QA Job Offer

The number in an offer is only part of the pay. Two testing jobs at the same rate can be worth very different amounts once you count the terms around them. Before you say yes, get answers to these.

• Employer. Are you hired by the studio or by a staffing company? Staffing company employees often have different benefits and a different path to a permanent role.
• Length. How long is the contract, and what usually happens at the end of it?
• Hours. Is overtime paid, and how many extra hours does the team expect near a release?
• Growth. Do testers at this studio move into QA engineering, design or production, and can you name one who did?
• Tools. Will you work with a bug tracker and automation tools, or only play builds by hand?

A job that pays near the bottom of the range but teaches you the tools can be worth more than a job near the middle that teaches you nothing new. Treat the first one or two years as paid training, and judge the offer by where it puts you in the percentile table above after that.

Moving up

Climbing the QA Pay Ladder

QA has a clearer ladder than most game jobs. The titles vary by studio, but the shape is usually the same.

Tester to Senior Tester

You run test passes, write reports and learn the game and its tools. Pay in this stage is likely to sit in the lower part of the percentile table, between the 10th and 25th percentiles of $61,440 and $80,310. Moving up comes from reliability: you find the bugs others miss, you write them up clearly, and leads trust you with the risky areas of a build.

QA Analyst or Engineer

You plan test coverage, build automated checks and work closely with programmers. This is where the occupation's median of $104,300 and the upper quartile, starting at $133,180, come into play. It asks for scripting, version control and a habit of thinking about how systems fail.

Lead, Manager or a New Field

QA leads and managers run teams, schedules and release sign-off. The top tenth of the occupation earned over $167,010, and that group tends to include people with deep technical or management responsibility. Some testers leave QA altogether for design, production or programming, which are paid differently. The game developer salary page covers the programming side.

Comparison

How Game Tester Pay Compares With Other Game Jobs

The game tester salary sits below the programming side of the industry and close to design. These are the three BLS occupations that cover the most common routes out of testing.

Software developers earned a median $31,680 a year more than QA analysts and testers, which is 30% higher. Web and digital interface designers, the occupation video game designers are counted in, earned $300 more than testers at the median. In both cases the mapping from a game job to a BLS occupation is ours, because BLS has no game codes. Read the comparison as the market for the skills, not as a studio pay scale.

Education

Do You Need a Degree to Earn a QA Tester Salary

No license is needed, and the most common answer in O*NET's survey is bachelor’s degree, at 50%. A degree still changes your options. It can open internships and entry roles at larger studios, and it gives you time to build projects and a network. If you want to compare programs, the best game design schools and game development degrees rankings weigh cost and completion, and the is game design a good career article covers the trade-offs.

If you skip a degree, you need something else that shows you can do the work. For a tester that means a few clear bug reports on a real game, a small test plan, and ideally one script that automates a check. The game design portfolio article explains how to show that kind of work.

Outlook

Job Outlook for QA Testers

BLS projects employment of software QA analysts and testers to grow 5.7% from 2025 to 2035, from 187,600 to 198,200 jobs, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 10,700 openings a year. That's across all software QA. The projections don't break out game testing, so they can't tell you how a given year's game hiring will go.

Even the lowest tenth of the occupation, at $61,440, earned more than the $50,980 median for all jobs.

That growth adds about 10,600 jobs over the projection period. Most openings come from workers leaving or changing occupations, so a tester who moves into another role still leaves a seat to fill. The lowest tenth of the occupation earns above the median for all jobs, which is worth knowing when you weigh a first testing job against work in another field.

In games, hiring runs in cycles tied to release schedules, and layoffs after a project ships are common enough that you should plan for them. A savings cushion, a portfolio kept current and a list of contacts matter as much as the pay figure itself. The game tester career guide and the game developer career guide show where the next role can come from.

The work

What the Pay Is For

The tasks O*NET lists first for the occupation show what moves a tester up the range. They include "Identify, analyze, and document problems with program function, output, online screen, or content," "Document software defects, using a bug tracking system, and report defects to software developers" and "Develop testing programs that address areas such as database impacts, software scenarios, regression testing, negative testing, error or bug retests, or usability." That's QA as a discipline: planning what to test, documenting it, and proving a fix worked.

A first game testing job is a narrower version of the same work. You'll play the same section of a game many times, try to break it on purpose, reproduce each bug until you can describe exactly how to trigger it, and write that down so a programmer can fix it without asking you. A tester whose bug reports a programmer never has to question is the tester who gets kept on and moved up. Compare every game job on the game design salary hub.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Do Game Testers and QA Testers Make?

BLS has no game tester occupation. Testers are counted as software quality assurance analysts and testers, whose national median was $104,300 in BLS May 2025, with the middle half earning $80,310 to $133,180 and the top 10% over $167,010. That group is mostly QA analysts and engineers, so an entry-level testing job will usually pay toward the bottom of its range, where the 10th percentile was $61,440. See how much QA testers make.

Is Game Testing a Good Way Into the Game Industry?

It can be. Testing teaches you how games are built and broken, and some testers move into design, production or QA engineering. It works best when you treat it as training: learn the tools, write clear bug reports, and build skills for the next role. Most QA jobs are outside games, so the skills also carry to other software work if studio hiring slows. See where a game testing job can lead.

Do Game Testers Need a Degree?

Not always. In O*NET's survey of the occupation, 50% said bachelor’s degree, 26% said associate’s degree or other 2-year degree, 9% said post-secondary certificate is needed for a new hire. 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 later. Job posts for testing roles vary, so read what each one asks for, and ask any studio what it expects before you invest in more school. See the full degree answer.

Which State Pays QA Testers the Most?

California has the highest published median for the occupation, $128,740, followed by Washington at $128,480 and Colorado at $123,690, in BLS May 2025. California has the most jobs. State medians aren't adjusted for living costs and cover QA work in every industry, not only games. Pay in your own state is the figure that matters most for your offer, and the state table lists every state. See the state table.

What Is the Hourly Pay for a Game Tester?

The national median for the occupation was $50 an hour in BLS May 2025. On the same schedule, the 10th percentile works out to about $29.54 an hour, which is the closer guide to an entry-level testing job. Studios that hire testers hourly may pay differently, and contract rates vary, so read the offer. Hourly pay is easier to compare across contract offers, but ask whether benefits are included. Studios hire testers in waves around releases. See the pay by percentile.

Do Video Game Testers Earn More Than Game Designers?

By the federal figures, software QA analysts and testers had a median of $104,300, against $104,000 for web and digital interface designers, the occupation video game designers are counted in, in BLS May 2025. Software developers had $135,980. These are whole occupations, not studio pay, so compare real offers. Treat the gap as a difference between occupations and not a promise about any one job. See how tester pay compares with other game jobs.

Is QA Testing a Growing Field?

BLS projects jobs for 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 projection describes QA as a career and not game testing alone. Game testing teams hire in waves around releases. Ask early whether good contract testers get offered permanent roles. See the full job outlook.

Keep exploring

Related Pages

• Ranking Best Online Game Design Degrees 13 confirmed online · Online See the ranking ›
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• Ranking Best Public Game Design Schools 27 ranked · Public See the ranking ›
• Guide What Is Game Design? The rules, systems and levels a designer builds, and how the work actually happens. Read the guide ›
• Guide Game Design Classes The courses a game design bachelor's requires, from real program catalogs. Read the guide ›
• Ranking Best Animation Schools 82 ranked · Art track See the ranking ›

All rankings ›All states ›All cities ›

Sources

1. 1 BLS, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: 15-1253 Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers National and state wages and employment. National figures checked against api.bls.gov. Accessed October 13, 2026.
2. 2 BLS, Employment Projections 2025-35 Projected employment change, openings, and the median wage for all occupations. Accessed October 13, 2026.
3. 3 O*NET OnLine, 15-1253.00 Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers Sample job titles, education and Hot Technology software. Accessed October 13, 2026.