In an era of game industry layoffs, Nintendo is hiring more people 

Since January 2023, there have been reports of layoffs in the gaming industry almost every month, including at Sony Interactive Entertainment, Microsoft, Sega America and Ubisoft- just to name a few.  In contrast to these cutbacks driven by factors such as rising development costs and post-pandemic slowdown, it seems that Nintendo is continuing to grow. 

Nintendo has been doing the opposite to laying off staff. In fact, the 134-year-old company has increased its intake of new employees this year to 7724 people (up from 7317 people in 2023) according to their most recent Summary of Accounts. 

Not only that, but Nintendo’s overall staff numbers worldwide have continued to increase year-on-year since 2016. They have gradually climbed from 5064 consolidated employees in March 2016 to 7724 in March 2024 (source: Nintendo Corporate Information via Wayback Machine). This healthy increase was likely driven in part by the success of the Nintendo Switch (which was released in 2027). 

As we reported last year, Nintendo’s turnover rate for new employees is close to zero, with only 1 out of 100 new hires leaving the company within the first 3 years. Nintendo currently has the 4^th highest average salary among Japanese video game companies, and employees stay there for an average of 14.8 years (source: Career High).