11% of game developers surveyed by GDC were laid off in the past year

Over one in 10 developers questioned in a new industry survey said they were laid off over the past year.

GDC’s latest annual State of the Game Industry survey, which asked over 3,000 game developers across indie and AAA studios questions about their work, was published on Tuesday.

About 11% of respondents reported being laid off in the past 12 months, which was up from 7% in last year’s survey.

And 41% of respondents said they had been impacted by layoffs, up from 35% in GDC’s 2024 report.

29% said they had colleagues who lost their jobs, which was up from 17% a year earlier, while 18% said staff in other teams or departments were laid off, which was up from 11%.

In addition, 4% said their studios were shut down over the past year.

The top three reasons companies gave for making layoffs were restructuring (22%), declining revenue (18%) and market shifts/industry trends (15%).

43% of participants said there hadn’t been any layoffs at their companies, which was down from 53% the previous year.

Game developer Farhan Noor, who has been tracking industry job cuts on videogameslayoffs.com, estimates that around 14,600 workers were laid off in 2024 – up from a total of 10,500 in 2023 and 8,500 in 2022.

Game companies reportedly impacted by layoffs so far this year include Wargaming USA, Highwire Games, Netmarble, Toadman Interactive, Freejam, Pirahna Games, Counterplay Games, Microsoft, Splash Damage, and Jar of Sparks.