Ukie Responds to UK Games Industry Workforce Demographics Survey Findings

 

The 2025 UK Games Industry Workforce Demographics Survey is the third edition of the survey into the UK games workforce. It has been published today by Professor Mark Taylor, commissioned by and delivered in partnership with Ukie, the trade association for the UK’s games and interactive entertainment industry.

This workforce demographics survey covers respondents’ roles, working patterns, personal characteristics, and attitudes towards their workplace and the wider industry, and follows previous editions conducted in 2019 and 2021. It also looks at the experiences of people who have left a job in the UK games industry in the last three years and includes a dedicated section on the international make-up of the workforce.

The survey received 1,610 responses between November 2025 and January 2026, down from 3,603 in 2021. It is best understood as a snapshot rather than an exhaustive audit. The findings reflect the experiences of those who took part during a period of significant upheaval, and because both the industry and the respondent base have changed since previous editions, they should be read on their own terms rather than compared directly with earlier editions.

Headline findings from the survey are:

• The UK games industry is powered by an experienced workforce: In fact, 97% of respondents have worked in the industry for more than a year, and 11% are now company owners or directors.
• Talent affected by job losses show some signs of bouncing back: Job losses among our sample were comparable to those in Europe, affecting more than a fifth of respondents to our survey. However,16% of people told us they’d changed jobs to a more senior position and half of people who left jobs for any reason had started a new role within three months. However, 9% were still searching for a role in games after a year.
• The workforce is more diverse than the wider UK workforce on several measures: 5% of respondents identify as non-binary or another gender; 33% identify as LGBTQIA+ (compared with 3.7% nationally); and 24% hold a non-UK nationality (compared with around 14% across the wider UK workforce). However, representation of people of Ethnic Minorities is much lower than the UK workforce, with representation of Black people being at 1% of respondents (compared to 5% of the UK workforce).
• Pride in the industry isn’t translating into advocacy: 81% of respondents are proud to be part of the UK games industry, but only 38% would recommend it as a great place to work.

 

Ukie is committed to making the games industry open, inclusive, and accessible for all. In response to the issues raised by this data, and to wider industry trends, Ukie’s Raise The Game programme has built a wide coalition of industry-leading strategic partners, elevating the excellent work they already do through Ukie’s channels, as well as establishing a dedicated fund to back that work.

These strategic partners, Code Coven, Games Leadership, Into Games, Many Cats, Mayamada, Melanin Gamers, Limit Break, Out Making Games, Special Effect, POC in Play, Women in Games, will work with Raise The Game to develop an action plan directly addressing the issues raised in this survey, helping to ensure that the next generation of games industry professionals enters workplaces that are equitable and safe for everyone. This action plan will be published in due course and updated as the work develops.

In the meantime, for those seeking resources on the issues raised by this survey, Raise The Game has published an industry best-practice document, with links to further useful resources: https://ukie.org.uk/raise-the-game/