With the advancement in technology day by day, innovations are introduced every day, AI is booming, all these factors have contributed to making people’s life easier and more leisurely. in today’s market, there’re a bunch of online product developing companies developing tons of products daily, such as new software, websites, applications, games, etc. only developing these products doesn’t make them enter the market, during their development, they some bugs/ mistakes arise which must get rectified before releasing them for the public so that they don’t ruin the user experience, especially in case of games, as it’s the most essential part as games are used for leisure by most of the peoples, and for a longer time.let us know about that the Salaries For Video Game Testers.
Salaries for Video Game Tester
In the US, game testers are paid in the range of $10,000 to $130,000, with a median salary of around $23,500. The middle 60% of video game testers get between $23,500 to $59,000, with the top 87% making around $130,000.
Work of Video Game Tester
For this, testers are required, which checks/test the product thoroughly before the final release. They ensure that the product interactively performs as per expectation, and if found any issue, they report it to the developers. Being a game tester requires a great enthusiasm regarding game playing, as it requires a nonstop couple of hours of game playing, performing repetitive tasks at all the different levels of the game to figure out the potential problems, finding out whether the game is multitasked supporting, and other different problems. Apart from this, they perform ongoing tests on all pre-released games to verify smooth running and functionality and locate the bugs and assess the accuracy and validity of the game, user manual, and promotional materials.
Factors deciding salaries of testers
- Ability of finding smallest to smallest bugs;
- Years of experience;
- Skill set;
- Company`s market value (in which they’re working);
- Handling complex parts of games efficiently
Salary in Hialeah, FL
The average video game tester makes around $26,000, which is 1% above the US average game tester’s salary of around $25,750. But still, the pay is a quarter low that of other metros such as San Francisco, Atlanta, GA, and Boston.
Salary in Laredo, Texas
A Laredo game tester gets around the average of $25,600. Testers are paid in the range of $10,000 to $129,000, with a median salary of $23,400. The middle 57% of video game testers make between $23,500 to $59,000, with the top 86% making around $130,000. This pay stub is around 20% lower than the combined averages of other metros such as San Francisco, New York, Denver, etc.
Salary in Las Vegas, NV
The average game tester of Las Vegas, NV gets a pay stub in the range of $10,500 to $45,200, with an average of $22,300 annually, which is around 13% lower than the nationals average game tester salary, which is around $25,700, and also it is 28% lower than the combined averages of other metros, i.e., of San Francisco, Boston, Phoenix, and Chicago. The middle 57% of video game testers make between $19,000 to $26,800, with the top 86% making around $45,200.
Salary in San Francisco, California
Tester in San Francisco gets paid around in the range of $12,200 to $125,000, with a median salary of $33,000. The middle 57% of video game testers make between $33,000 and $63,100, with the top 86% making around $125,000. This pay stub is around 41% above the national average video game tester salary, and also it is around 18% above the combined average salaries of other metros, i.e., of Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles.
Tax Deductions
Video game tester have to pay a federal tax of 12% in this tax bracket. Apart from paying federal tax, they also need to pay additional state taxes which vary state by state, like California state having 4% state tax. After deducting all the taxes testers are left with a take home pay averaging around $30,000, with each pay check averaging around $900.
Quality of life of video game tester
With an average take-home pay of $1,120 per month, testers cannot take out living expenses from this salary, since the rent only in the US averages around $2,500 monthly for a 2 BR apartment, secondly the expense for living excluding the rent in the US averages around $975 per month, and that means roughly the salary will carry out the expense of a single person that too excluding rent, not for a whole family. Summing out, for an individual it’ll cost around 165% of the monthly pay stub for a decent living, whereas for a family of 4, it’ll cost around 290% of a video game salary.
Conclusion
A video game tester checks/tests the product thoroughly before the final release. They ensure that the product interactively performs as per expectation, and if found any issue, they report it to the developers. Being a game tester requires a great enthusiasm regarding game playing, as it requires a nonstop couple of hours of game playing, performing repetitive tasks at all the different levels of the game to figure out the potential problems, finding out whether a game is multitasked supporting, and other different problems. Game testers are paid in the range of $10,000 to $130,000, with a median salary of around $23,500.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What’s the average income of a US-based video game tester?
The average salary of a video game tester ranges between $ (10,000 – 130,000).
- In which state do video game testers pay high taxes?
Californian video game testers pay most of the tax in this tax bracket, they pay 12% federal tax along with 4% state tax, but also, they get paid high as compared to other states.
- Are video game testers are paid enough?
No, in the US video game testers aren’t paid enough, they even cannot pay the rent of a 2BR apartment, and the cost of living for an individual costs around 165% of net income.
