In February 2025, PUBG developer Krafton launched an “enhanced childbirth and childcare support program,” offering employees who welcomed newborns after January 1 of that year a sum of 100 million won (approximately $60k USD) to cover each child’s upbringing. The results are now available, revealing that between January 2025 and April 2026, the birth rate among Krafton’s staff nearly doubled (source: ThisIsGame).
This initiative was introduced to tackle South Korea’s dwindling birth rates, encompassing support from childbirth through to child-rearing. Additionally, the company implemented measures to cultivate a work environment that promotes work-life balance. The report indicates there were 46 births among employees from January 2025 to April 2026, precisely double the figure from the same period the previous year (23 births) and more than twice the number from two years prior (21 births).
Krafton collaborated with Seoul National University’s Center for Population Policy Research to assess the program’s effectiveness. According to the study, financial assistance (including childbirth and childcare incentives) had a lesser impact on encouraging couples to have children but effectively demonstrated the company’s sincere commitment to addressing the nation’s low birth rates.
Conversely, non-financial systems were found to directly influence employees’ views on childbirth. Krafton’s focus on support measures like adjusting working hours and improving its childcare facilities – such as offering telework for parents caring for their children, expanding parental leave to up to two years, prenatal checkup leaves during pregnancy, automatic hiring of substitute staff, and psychological counselling for returning parent employees – boosted overall employee work engagement.
Mido