Indie Studios Now Employ Twice as Many Devs as AAA Companies

In 2025, indie studios now employ nearly a third (32%) of all game developers, more than double the share of AAA studios (15%), according to the 2025 GDC State of the Game Industry report.

Besides that the gaming industry’s workforce is maturing as the median age of game developers has increased over the last 10 years, while game design roles have doubled in popularity over the same period. According to new data from the 2025 GDC State of the Game Industry report and IGDA’s Developer Satisfaction Survey 2015, the number of developers aged 45 or older has more than tripled since 2015.

Back in 2015, the dev scene was largely dominated by those under 35. But now developers aged from 35 to 44 make up a third of the industry, while those aged from 25 to 34 count dropped from 58% to 36%. This aging curve suggests that not only are people entering the industry later, but they are sticking around longer.

The U.S. remains the central hub of game development, accounting for 58% of developers today as it barely changed from 57% a decade ago. Yet at the same time, Canada, once the second-largest game dev hub with 11%, has dropped to 6%, overtaken by the United Kingdom.

Game design roles have doubled in popularity over the past decade, up from 15% in 2015 to 35% in 2025. Engineering and production roles are also climbing, with programming seeing an 8% increase and team management roles jumping by 19%.