Ukie has published the results of the second UK Games Industry Census, giving a deeper insight into the demographic make-up and working habits of the UK video games industry.

The census, which was conducted by the University of Sheffield and was completed by over 3600 industry workers in Autumn 2021, asked respondents about their personal characteristics and background, such as ethnicity, gender identity and sexuality, as well as about their working practices. It also explored several new areas such as the impact of the pandemic on working practices and attitudes towards the workplace and industry to deepen understanding of the sector.

The pandemic has resulted in both major changes to how people in the UK games industry work and their preferences for where they will work in the future. Pre-pandemic, 66% of people in the industry reported that they worked in the office, compared to 9% at home and 7% working in a hybrid system. By Autumn 2021, 80% were working at home, 8% from the office alone and 11% in a mix of both.

Only 10% of industry workers expressed a preference to work from the office in the future. In comparison, 52% of respondents identified their ideal working situation to be a hybrid approach and 38% wanted to work from home full time.

Overall, attitudes to both individual workplaces and the industry at large tend to be positive. Most people who work in the sector feel proud to do so with 87% of people being proud to tell others where they work specifically and 85% proud to be a part of the UK games industry. However, people tend to speak more positively about their company than the industry as a whole. For example, whilst 83% of respondents recommended their own workplace as a great place to work, only 66% said the same about the games industry as a whole.

The demographic make-up of workers in the games industry showed marginal improvements to diversity in the 2022 census when compared to 2020. The gender make-up of the industry diversified slightly. 67% of the workforce is now male, female is 30% and 3% is non-binary compared to 70%, 28% and 2% in 2020 respectively. The representation of different sexualities increased from the 2020 census. The number of people who reported a sexuality other than heterosexual was up to 24% from 21%, significantly higher than in the wider adult population.

The games industry workforce remained young with 61% listing their age as 35 or under in 2022, although this was a slight reduction compared to 66% two years earlier.

The figures for ethnic groups remained similar to those reported two years ago, with 66% of the workforce reporting that they are White British, 24% as White Other, 5% as Black, 2% as Asian, 2% as Mixed/Multiple ethnicity and a further 2% as other. To read Ukie’s news release in full and for a link to the census, click here.