Careers in STEM

Esports Job Openings Double Year over Year

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 02/13/20

A UK company that specializes in advertising jobs in esports globally said that the number of opportunities in esports has nearly doubled year over year. According to an analysis of its own data, Hitmarker reported that 11,027 jobs were listed in 2019 compared to 5,896 in 2018. However, nearly 12 percent of those were unpaid.

The data for the analysis was taken from 16,923 jobs posted on Hitmarker between Jan. 1, 2918 and Dec. 31, 2019.

Among all countries, the United States led the way, hosting 56 percent of job openings in 2019. The bulk of those — two-thirds or 63 percent — of U.S. jobs were located in California, totaling 3,943 for the year. Washington state came in second, with 7 percent of open positions, equaling 418 jobs.

The largest number of job types was software engineering (18 percent), followed by marketing (14 percent), design (7 percent), operations (7 percent) and sales (seven percent).

The top five hiring companies were:

• Game streamer Twitch, with 1,334 job openings;

• League of Legends' Riot Games, with 757 positions;

• Fortnite maker Epic Games, with 373 posts;

• Warcraft's Blizzard, with 304 openings; and

• Mobile game platform producer Skillz, with 269 jobs.

For the first year since Hitmarker began its public count, almost a tenth of jobs (nine percent) were categorized as "entry" level, needing less than a year of experience. Positions for people with between one and two years of experience made up 19 percent of the composition. Those with between two and five years — intermediate candidates — were in demand at 40 percent of companies. And those with at least five years of experience — senior people — were sought in 31 percent of job listings.

Full-time positions made up more than three-quarters (76 percent) of open jobs in 2019. At 10 percent, "volunteer" posts were the next most common type of opening; however, this share is down from 18 percent in 2018. The company called this a "contentious aspect of the job landscape." Part-time, freelance and internship opportunities all came in with less than 10 percent.

The complete worldwide data breakdown is openly available on the Esports Insider website, which covers news in the segment.