Game jobs champion Amir Satvat said his data shows that the average number of open game roles at a time, measured over the trailing 12 months, has increased for a third year in a row to 18,000 in November 2024, compared to 15,000 in March 2025 and 14,000 in August 2024.

This is part of an annual exercise Satvat, a general partner at 1Up Ventures, conducts on an apples-to-apples basis, to provide the deepest possible insights on global hiring.

“I assess the games jobs market as objectively and fairly as possible,” Satvat said in a post on LinkedIn. Over the past few weeks, I’ve checked and rechecked these numbers, revisiting my initial findings and validating the comparisons before reporting them. After that work, I’m glad finally to share some good news about the overall games jobs market.

I believe hiring will modestly outpace layoffs for a third consecutive year. That outlook does not diminish how difficult the layoffs have been, or their disproportionate impact on people and teams in the West. Those effects are real and should not be glossed over.

The global mix of open roles continues to change and it is driving hiring growth. From 2024 to 2026, China’s share of open roles has grown from 15% to 30%. Combined, APAC now accounts for 47%, roughly half, of all open games hiring in the world, up from 41% in 2025 and 31% in 2024.

Believe it not, North America excluding California has also grown, from 10% to 15%.

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