Job Openings in Esports Double Year over Year
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 02/14/20
The number of career opportunities in esports has nearly doubled
year over year, according to an analysis from Hitmarker. The UK company specializing in advertising jobs in esports said 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 available on
the Esports Insider website, which covers news in the field.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.