The Princeton Review's 2025 Rankings of Top Schools for Game Design

#1 on Undergraduate School List: U-Southern Cal
#1 on Graduate School List: NYU                          

NEW YORK, March 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Princeton Review^®—the education services company known for its school rankings in dozens of categories—today reported its Top Game Design Schools for 2025. It is the company's 16th annual ranking of undergraduate and graduate schools for game design studies. 

The University of Southern California is #1 on the undergraduate school ranking list which names 50 schools in all. USC is up from the #2 ranking on this list in 2024.

New York University is #1 on the graduate school ranking list which names 25 schools in all. NYU is up from the #2 ranking on this list in 2024.

For this project, The Princeton Review also reports the schools that made the lists in seven regions: Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Northeast, South, Southwest, West, and International. Most of the institutions on the lists are in the U.S. Two are in Canada and four are abroad.

The top 10 schools on the undergraduate and graduate lists and the #1 schools on the seven regional lists are below. The complete ranking lists are posted at PrincetonReview.com along with the company's profiles of the schools featuring information about their programs and offerings.

The Princeton Review's 2025 rankings of top schools for game design were based on the company's survey in 2024 of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design courses and/or degrees. The 50-question survey covered four areas: academics, faculty, technology, and career topics. More than 40 data points from the survey were factored into the ranking tallies. Information about the survey and ranking methodology is here.

PC Gamer, a top online and print gaming publication, is The Princeton Review's reporting partner on this project, an affiliation that began in 2013. The magazine's May issue, which lands on newsstands today, has an eight-page feature on the ranking lists. Titled "The Best Game Design Programs Ranked by The Princeton Review 2025," it reports the schools that made the undergraduate and graduate lists, and features notes about each school's game design program including names of distinguished faculty and alumni as well as the mean salary of graduates. The feature also includes two articles presenting interesting "homework" challenges for game developers. One is titled "Competitive communication." The other is titled "Meaningful exploration."

The top 10 schools on the list "Top 50 Undergrad Schools for Game Design for 2025" are:

1. University of Southern California (Los Angeles)
2. New York University (New York, NY)
3. Clark University (Worcester, MA)
4. University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
5. University of Central Florida (Orlando)
6. Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY)
7. Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)
8. Abertay University (Dundee, Scotland)
9. Champlain College (Burlington, VT)
10. Michigan State University (East Lansing)

The top 10 schools on the list "Top 25 Grad Schools for Game Design for 2025" are:

1. New York University (New York, NY)
2. University of Central Florida (Orlando)
3. University of Southern California (Los Angeles)
4. University of Utah (Salt Lake City)
5. Clark University (Worcester, MA)
6. Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX)
7. Abertay University (Dundee, Scotland)
8. Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)
9. Michigan State University (East Lansing)
10. Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY)

By region, #1 schools on the lists are:

Mid-Atlantic: Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad
Midwest: Michigan State University (East Lansing), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad
Northeast: New York University (New York, NY), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad
South: University of Central Florida (Orlando), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad
Southwest: Abilene Christian University (Abilene, TX), #1 Undergrad
                    Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX), #1 Grad
West: University of Southern California (Los Angeles), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad
International: Abertay University (Dundee, Scotland), #1 Undergrad, #1 Grad

"'The schools that made our lists for 2025 have awesome programs in game design. Their faculties are superb. Their facilities are state-of-the-art, and their alumni include many of the video game industry's most successful designers, developers, and entrepreneurs. We highly recommend them to any student considering a career in this exciting field," said Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief.

Franek noted the exceptional experience that students enrolled in the game design programs at the schools on the 2025 lists receive.

At the 50 undergraduate schools that made the lists, in 2024:

• 66% of the students worked on a shipped game as part of their studies
• 93% of the students developed an actionable plan to launch a functional game after graduation
• the average starting salary of graduates with a bachelor's degree in game studies was almost $63,000.

At the 25 graduate schools that made the lists, in 2024:

• 80% of the students worked on a shipped game as part of their studies
• 90% of the students developed an actionable plan to launch a functional game after graduation
• the average starting salary of graduates with a master's degree in game studies was almost $74,000.

In addition to The Princeton Review's annual rankings of undergraduate and graduate schools for game design studies, the company ranks undergraduate and graduate schools for entrepreneurship studies, as well as law schools, MBA programs and colleges in several categories as well as online programs in various disciplines.

About PC Gamer
Future's leading online and print gaming publication, PC Gamer is the global authority on PC games. Having covered PC gaming for more than 30 years, PC Gamer continues that legacy today with worldwide print editions and around-the-clock news, features, original reporting, buying guides, and reviews on pcgamer.com, as well as with its twice-annual PC Gaming Show https://www.pcgamer.com/broadcast event. Visit PC Gamer's staff page to see the international team behind these stories and events, and keep up on Steam, X, Facebook and YouTube.

About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a line of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. The company's Tutor.com brand, now in its 24th year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 28 million tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York, NY, is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit PrincetonReview.com and the company's Media Center. Follow the company on X (formerly Twitter) (@ThePrincetonRev) and Instagram (@theprincetonreview).

WEBSITE: www.princetonreview.com

SOURCE The Princeton Review