With news of studio layoffs and shutdowns, and overall dissatisfaction as to where employees are concerned, it appears that Nintendo doesn’t have to worry at all about their employees. This speaks volumes to the current state of the big company’s culture, as records have revealed that workers rarely ever leave.
Records that have been revealed lately have given us an insight into employee tenure, turnover rate and much more, which all seems to point out how well Nintendo are treating their employees. As you enter the air of this studio and take a breath, you realize you are in safe hands, which is a genuine positive in the current climate, considering other big studios have been cutting away at their workforces as of late.
A fresh batch of employee records has surfaced (as per Go Nintendo), and it has put to light some very intriguing data. Covering the period of April 2024 to March 2025, the data has provided insight for Nintendo in Japan, the Americas, Australia and Europe, all of which trends positively.
Nintendo Japan’s full-term employee number has risen by 148, while over in the America’s it’s increased by 165, and Europe’s team has increased by 56. To put this into contrast, the “worst” outcome they had was that the team in Australia has literally only reduced its staff by three employees during this time. Joining this, in terms of service, Nintendo Japan has an amazing average of 14.4 years for employee retention. Nintendo America is set at right around 10 years, Europe sits at a nice 11.1 years and Australia has the shortest, which is 8.5 years of service. It is also to be noted that men stick around for a longer time period as opposed to women based on the employee retention records.
With the studio’s employee years of service being fairly high in comparison with other major companies, the turnover rate in turn is pretty low, with the highest being in Australia at 16.7%, and the lowest being 1.9% in Japan. To put this into perspective, Activision Blizzard has a relatively consistent turnover rate of around 16%, steadily because of demand.
Information has also revealed that Nintendo has a grand total of 5,630 full-time employees globally. As we look to break this down into the segments mentioned, Japan has the most workers with there being nearly 3000 employees, whilst America comes in next with around 1500. The Aussie part of the company has the least number of staff with just under 100, and Europe sits in third with the rest of the employees under their umbrella. If we look again to other major companies for comparison, Nintendo has a smaller number of employees than Sony, which has over 12,000 employees just under its Games & Network service division.
Based on the stats and the overall staff happiness, it seems that the family-friendly Kyoto-born company is the best to work for and would definitely be a good place to start a career in the industry. That is, of course, if you are looking for long-term employment and prefer being valued, because as we have seen with the recent negative news surrounding layoffs, the gaming industry has had a bad picture painted of job retention. Hopefully other companies begin to follow suit with Nintendo, at least in terms of the overall treatment and well-being of their employees… not so much about the $80 games.
Why do you think Nintendo keeps employees for so long? Is it money, agency, kindness, respect, or something else entirely? Maybe it’s just a fun place to spend one’s time? Maybe it’sa me, Mario!
