Games companies are still cutting jobs
Games companies hired heavily during the pandemic, then began cutting jobs in 2023 as demand cooled and borrowing got more expensive. The cuts sit behind most of the industry's business, labor and creative stories since, so they are background for almost everything else here.
Latest figure · 2026 so far
10,318 job losses
Confirmed for 2026 through 10 September, on Satvat's tracker, which projects 13,800 for the full year.
ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker, 10 September 2026 update
Where it stands
No official body counts games layoffs, but two public trackers do: Amir Satvat's and Farhan Noor's. Layoffs dipped in 2025 and rose again in 2026, so the dip was a low point, not an ending. Check the date on any claim that layoffs are slowing before repeating it. For scale, the ESA counts 82,930 people directly employed in US games in 2025. Global estimates vary and cannot be compared across countries.
Recorded job losses peaked at 15,631 in 2024, fell to 9,197 in 2025 and have already passed that in 2026, with 10,318 confirmed by 10 September. The 2026 column is a part-year. The 2022 and 2023 figures are round estimates.
*Confirmed for 2026 through 10 September, on Satvat's tracker, which projects 13,800 for the full year.
SourceASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker
| Year | Job losses recorded, by year |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 8,500 |
| 2023 | 10,500 |
| 2024 | 15,631 |
| 2025 | 9,197 |
| 2026* | 10,318 |
Timeline
2023
Epic cuts 900 as Fortnite's margins thin
Epic Games laid off around 900 people, 16% of its staff, with Tim Sweeney saying the company had been spending way more money than it earned as Fortnite shifted to lower-margin creator content.
2024
Microsoft cuts 1,900 after the Activision deal
Microsoft laid off around 1,900 of its 22,000 games staff, just over three months after closing its $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard. Blizzard and Sledgehammer were heavily affected.
Sony cuts 900 and closes London Studio
Sony cut about 900 jobs, 8% of PlayStation Studios, closing London Studio outright and reducing Guerrilla, Firesprite, Insomniac and Naughty Dog.
2025
GDC survey: one in ten laid off in 2024
GDC's 2025 State of the Game Industry found 11% of respondents had been laid off in 2024 and 43% worked somewhere with no layoffs at all, down from 53% the year before.
GDC State of the Game Industry 2025, via GameDev Reports, 28 February 2025
Microsoft's 9,100 reach Xbox
Microsoft cut about 9,100 roles across the whole company, 4% of its workforce, and never said how many were in games. Around 200 were at King's Barcelona office. Rare's Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot were canceled and The Initiative closed.
2026
GDC survey: one in four laid off in two years
GDC's 2026 survey of over 2,300 developers found 28% had been laid off in the past two years, 33% among those in the United States, and half worked for an employer that had cut in the past 12 months.
Epic cuts over 1,000
Epic Games cut over 1,000 jobs, with Tim Sweeney citing a decline in Fortnite engagement since 2025 and a company spending significantly more than it brings in.
Xbox says it will cut 3,200 jobs by mid-2027
Xbox's chief, Asha Sharma, tells staff the division will cut approximately 3,200 roles during its financial year to June 2027, about 1,600 of them that day. It also plans to sell several studios.
The 2026 projection eases to 13,800
Satvat's tracker eased its 2026 projection to 13,800 from August's 14,666, with 10,318 confirmed through 10 September, already above 2022, 2023 and 2025 with sixteen weeks left.
ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker, 10 September 2026 update
Xbox cuts 268 more and folds its studios into four owners
Microsoft eliminates 268 more roles on 22 September 2026, across Halo Studios, other first-party studios and the Xbox Game Studios management layer, and says the cuts since July bring it roughly three-quarters of the way through the restructuring it announced. It reorganizes the rest: Activision takes Rare and World's Edge and the next Halo, Bethesda takes Obsidian, King takes Microsoft Casual Games, and Playground and Turn 10 become one studio. Ninja Theory faces a proposed closure after two sale agreements fell through.
Consequences
012026
Five layoff rounds make up half the year's cuts
The cuts are concentrated. In 2026, the five biggest rounds of layoffs account for about 53% of all jobs lost, and the top two alone for about 42%. North America has 66% of the rounds and about 79% of the people affected.
ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker, 10 September 2026 update
022025
Fewer layoffs does not mean recovery
By mid-2025, nearly 40,000 people had lost games jobs across the years tracked. The experience they took with them does not come back, and the people who stay live with the fear of the next round. One ZeniMax worker described those left behind as a gutted crew still expected to ship award-winning games.
032026
Half of those cut are still looking
Of developers laid off in the past two years, 48% were still job hunting when surveyed. That includes 36% of those cut more than a year earlier. Among students, 74% said they are worried about finding work.
Objections
Counterpoint2025
The two trackers are thousands apart
For 2025, Noor's tracker counts 5,300 layoffs and Satvat's counts 9,197. For 2026, Noor has 4,600 as of July 1, and Satvat has 10,318 as of September. Noor's 2025 page was last updated on November 30, 2025, so part of the gap comes from one tracker lagging behind, not from a real disagreement.
Counterpoint2026
The main tracker says layoffs are slowing
Satvat's tracker, the source of the main count, says the pace is easing. Its September 2026 update lowered its full-year projection by 5.9% and its forecast for the rest of the year by 23%. And 2025 was already a third lower than 2024.
ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker, 10 September 2026 update
Counterpoint2026
The three surveys asked three different questions
GDC's yearly survey numbers cannot be read as a trend, because each year asked something different. In 2024, 35% said a colleague or acquaintance had been laid off. In 2025, 11% said they had been laid off that year. In 2026, 28% said they had been laid off in the past two years.
What to watch
2026
Whether Xbox's last quarter of cuts lands in 2026
Satvat's monthly forecast update. Xbox made about 1,600 of its 3,200 planned cuts in July 2026 and 268 more in September, and says it is roughly three-quarters through. It has until June 2027 to finish. The tracker counts the remainder in 2026 and says it will revise if the cuts slip into 2027, and the Arkane consultation is scheduled to run to the end of the year.
2027
GDC's next survey
The next GDC State of the Game Industry, due around the turn of the year, is the first survey taken after a second year above 10,000 confirmed cuts.
Further reading
- AnalysisData points to slowing layoffs, but doesn't capture true harm to game industrygamedeveloper.com
- DataGDC 2026 State of the Game Industry Reveals Impact of Layoffsgdconf.com
- DataAmir Satvat: Layoffs in the Gaming Industry in 2026gamedevreports.substack.com
Where to follow it Game Developer's business desk, GDC State of the Game Industry (annual), Satvat's layoff tracker, Farhan Noor's videogamelayoffs.com tracker, GamesIndustry.biz
- Rich markets are losing players, and growth has moved elsewhere
- China's growth is going to Chinese-made games
- Publishers are retreating from live-service games
- Investors are pulling money out of studios
- Mobile games are struggling to find new players
- AI data centers are taking the memory games hardware needs
- Game prices are stalling as hardware prices climb
- Games media is consolidating and shrinking