Game Tester Salary

You might think that game testing is the perfect job, after all you get paid to play games all day right?

Well actually there's a little more to it then that...

Typically game testers are paid anything from $8 - $20 per hour, but there are different types of game testing jobs, and different levels of involvement with a project, and past experience will affect your likely salary.

Like most careers, if you have little or no experience you can expect to start on the lowest pay scale. Since most game testers coming into the industry tend to be young, enthusiastic and passionate about games that isn't usually a problem. One of the main reasons for being a games tester is to get industry experience, and so taking a lower salary but gaining vital experience is generally accepted as a good deal.

Once you've built up experience on a number of projects, you have more options. If you're looking to stay in testing you can work your way up to lead tester roles, which will involve a fair amount of management and will require good people skills, but can mean salaries of $80k - $100k pa.

Most young game testers however have their eye on other careers in the games industry, namely development, and of course that is the reason lots of people take game testing jobs in the first place.

If your only goal is to make as much money as possible, as fast as possible, then there are other more lucrative jobs out there. But if you are passionate about games, have a strong work ethic and are in this for the long haul, testing games can be a great first step in a career path in the games industry, and a lot of fun along the way!