Currently, the sector directly employs about 50,000 people, of which 30% of the workforce are programmers and developers, it said.
“Over the next year, the sector will add new jobs across domains like programming (game developers, unity developers), testing (games test engineering, QA lead), animation and design, apart from miscellaneous roles like content writers, gaming journalists, web analyst,” the report said.
Sunil Chemmankotil, CEO, Teamlease Digital, said “Gaming industry is the next sunrise industry due to its increasing user base and the opportunities that this industry is set to offer. It offers jobs across sectors, and that makes it more in demand. Despite facing hurdles owing to frequent regulatory changes, the gaming industry is expected to create 1 lakh jobs by FY23 and grow 2.5x by 2026.”
The highest-paying profiles within the industry include game producers (Rs 10 lakh/pa), game designers (Rs 6.5 lakh/pa) and software engineers (Rs 5.5 lakh/pa).
“We are at the cusp of exponential growth in the sector. With a 480 million strong gaming community, India is the second largest globally, after China. To address this growth, employment in the sector is going to significantly increase. Today, we have a 90% millennials and Gen-Z workforce and the majority of these professionals are aspiring to work in emerging sectors like gaming,” said Munira Loliwala, Business Head-Specialized Staffing, TeamLease Digital.
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The demand would largely be for candidates with skills ranging from BCA in Software and Diploma in 3D, 2D, Animation and VFX to M.Tech/B.Tech in IT and Diploma in specialized languages like C++, Java and DevOps.
“With the confluence of Web3 and Metaverse, gamification is not just restricted to traditional gaming avenues but has extended to other emerging tech sectors like E-commerce, FinTech and Education etc. Over the next few years, aided by the sturdy growth in the sector, we will see a catapult impact on employment as well”, said Loliwala.