Gaming industry layoffs are down in 2025, but calling that good news feels wrong. According to the latest forecast from industry advocate Amir Satvat released December 17, 2025, the year will close with approximately 9,175 gaming job losses compared to 15,631 in 2024. That’s a 41 percent decrease, which sounds like progress until you zoom out and realize the industry has shed over 43,000 jobs across four brutal years.
Satvat, who gained recognition at The Game Awards 2024 for his tireless work helping laid-off developers find new positions, regularly tracks and forecasts gaming layoffs through his community network. His data consistently runs higher than public trackers because he counts situations that never hit the news cycle and fills in the many question marks left by incomplete reporting. The numbers paint a picture of an industry still hemorrhaging talent, just at a slightly slower pace than the catastrophic peak of 2024.
The Four-Year Bloodbath by the Numbers
Context matters when discussing whether 2025 represents improvement. The full scope of gaming industry layoffs from 2022 through projected end of 2025 tells a devastating story. According to Satvat’s data, the industry has lost 43,806 jobs across these four years, breaking down as follows:
2022 saw 8,500 layoffs as early warning signs appeared. 2023 escalated to 10,500 cuts as the post-pandemic correction began in earnest. 2024 exploded to 15,631 job losses, representing the absolute peak of the crisis. 2025 will finish with approximately 9,175 layoffs if Satvat’s December 17 forecast holds, assuming just 122 additional cuts for the remainder of the year.
That 2025 figure is remarkably close to where Satvat’s forecast started the year. On January 15, he projected 9,769 total layoffs for 2025. After quarterly audits uncovered underreporting issues and tracking actual events throughout the year, the forecast settled at 9,175, a variance of less than one percent from the initial prediction. This suggests Satvat’s methodology has become disturbingly accurate at predicting which direction the industry is heading.
While 9,175 represents a significant drop from 2024’s nightmare, it’s still higher than any year before 2023. The industry isn’t recovering. It’s just destroying itself at a more sustainable pace.
Why Satvat’s Numbers Run Higher
If you’ve seen other gaming layoff trackers showing lower numbers around 6,000 to 7,000 for 2025, there’s a reason Satvat’s forecast sits nearly 3,000 higher. He addressed this discrepancy directly in a November 18 LinkedIn post explaining his quarterly audit process. After deep reviews with multiple people revisiting individual situations, he found layoffs in 2025 were underreported by roughly 500 positions.
Three specific factors explain why his numbers exceed other public trackers. First, roughly a third of commonly cited layoff situations are listed with question marks or no numbers provided. Satvat’s community network can fill in most of those gaps with actual figures. Second, several meaningful layoff situations simply aren’t included elsewhere because they never publicly reported or hit the news cycle. Third, many reported numbers are significantly undercounted, especially the games-specific portions of broader studio or corporate cuts.
When Microsoft laid off 9,100 people across the company in July 2025, public reports focused on the total figure. But how many of those specifically came from Xbox and gaming divisions? Satvat’s network tracks the gaming-specific impact that gets lost in broader corporate restructuring announcements. This granular approach means his data captures the true scale of what’s happening to game developers specifically rather than just tech workers generally.
The audit process isn’t casual. These are deep reviews revisiting individual situations to verify what actually happened. Most quarterly audits result in small revisions. The November audit revealed something more serious, forcing an upward revision of roughly 500 layoffs that had been underreported. That kind of rigorous verification separates Satvat’s data from crowdsourced trackers that rely purely on public announcements.
The Human Cost Behind the Statistics
Numbers feel abstract until you consider what they represent. According to GDC’s 2025 State of the Game Industry report, 11 percent of game developers were personally laid off in 2024. That’s one in ten people who responded to the survey. Even more striking, 41 percent of developers were impacted by layoffs in some way, whether losing their own jobs, watching teams get decimated, or working at studios where cuts occurred. That’s up from 35 percent in 2024.
Satvat estimated in July 2025 that the industry will lose 100,000 years of combined experience by the end of the year. That’s not just bodies. It’s institutional knowledge, mentorship capacity, and the kind of expertise that can’t be rebuilt quickly even when studios start hiring again. You can’t make great games without great people, as Satvat said during his Game Awards acceptance speech in December 2024, and the industry has eliminated a staggering amount of games experience.
The psychological toll on those who remain can’t be measured in spreadsheets. The GDC survey found that 58 percent of developers expressed some level of concern about further layoffs occurring. Working under that constant threat changes how people approach their jobs, their willingness to take creative risks, and their loyalty to employers who might discard them during the next restructuring.
What Caused This Sustained Crisis
The layoffs didn’t happen in a vacuum. Multiple factors converged to create this prolonged bloodletting. COVID-era overexpansion represents the most commonly cited culprit. During pandemic lockdowns, gaming revenue exploded as people stuck at home turned to entertainment. Studios hired aggressively, publishers made expensive acquisitions, and everyone projected that growth trajectory would continue indefinitely.
It didn’t. When pandemic restrictions ended, gaming revenue returned to pre-COVID trends. The same number of people were gaming for about the same amount of time they did in 2019. Meanwhile, studios were left with inflated headcounts and cost structures based on unsustainable growth expectations. The gaming industry is literally tens of billions of dollars smaller than companies projected during their expansion phase.
Rising development costs compounded the problem. Blockbuster games now take five-plus years to develop with budgets exceeding $200 million. Failed live service launches that were supposed to generate recurring revenue instead became expensive write-offs. Embracer Group alone reduced its headcount from 15,701 to 7,873 between August 2023 and March 2024, cutting over 8,000 workers or half their workforce after an acquisition spree that couldn’t sustain itself.
Developers surveyed by GDC primarily attributed layoffs to overexpansion during COVID, increasing production costs, waning player engagement, unrealistic expectations for blockbuster titles, and ineffective leadership and mismanagement. While companies cited restructuring and market changes in official statements, developers on the ground saw failures of long-term strategy and reactionary behavior that wasn’t sustainable.
A herd mentality element exists too. When one major publisher announces layoffs, it psychologically gives permission for others to follow suit. The constant drumbeat of cuts across Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, Riot Games, Epic Games, and others creates an environment where mass layoffs become normalized rather than viewed as management failures.
The Long-Term Damage Nobody’s Calculating
Short-term thinking dominates executive decisions, but the long-term consequences will shape the industry for years. Job market saturation means thousands of experienced developers are competing for far fewer positions. North America, which once accounted for 40 percent of new job openings, now represents just 25 percent. Many talented developers will leave the industry permanently because there simply aren’t enough studios hiring to absorb the displaced workforce.
Junior roles have been slashed, raising serious concerns about the talent pipeline. How do you build the next generation of game developers when studios won’t hire entry-level positions? The industry historically relied on passionate junior developers willing to accept lower pay and long hours to break in. Without those opportunities, where does future talent come from?
Game cancellations represent another hidden cost. High-profile projects scrapped in recent years include an untitled Star Wars game from Respawn Entertainment, Sony’s The Last of Us Online multiplayer title, and a new Deus Ex from Eidos Montreal before Square Enix sold the studio. Each cancellation represents years of work erased and teams disbanded before shipping anything.
Studio closures have eliminated beloved developers entirely. Arkane Austin, the team behind Prey and part of Redfall’s troubled development, shut down in May 2024. Volition, creators of Saints Row and Red Faction, closed in August 2023. Ready at Dawn, developers of The Order: 1886 and several VR titles, closed in early 2024. These weren’t struggling indie studios. These were established teams with decades of history that got sacrificed during corporate restructuring.
The risk-averse environment that emerges from sustained layoffs stifles innovation. When keeping your job depends on hitting safe financial targets, who’s going to champion weird experimental projects? The industry might emerge leaner, but it also emerges creatively conservative, focused on sequels and proven formulas rather than taking chances on new ideas.
Signs of Hope Are Hard to Find
Is there any good news? The fact that 2025 layoffs are tracking significantly below 2024’s peak suggests we’ve passed the worst of the crisis. Studios can’t keep cutting at 2024’s pace without ceasing to exist entirely. The slowdown indicates that companies have right-sized their workforces to match current market realities, however brutal the adjustment process was for the thousands who lost jobs.
Some developers found that unionization provided protection. When Microsoft laid off 1,900 gaming employees in January 2024, unionized ZeniMax QA workers weren’t affected through multiple rounds of cuts. Collective bargaining can’t prevent all layoffs, but it forces companies to follow proper procedures and provides workers with some leverage in negotiations.
Amir Satvat’s community has helped over 4,000 laid-off developers find new positions through networking, mentorship, and direct connections to hiring managers. His recognition at The Game Awards 2024 highlighted how community support can partially mitigate the damage when institutional structures fail workers. Individual advocates can’t solve systemic problems, but they can help people survive them.
The industry’s total employment has fallen back to pre-COVID levels, which suggests we’ve completed the correction from pandemic overexpansion. If the fundamentals stabilize and companies commit to sustainable long-term growth rather than boom-bust cycles, 2026 could see actual improvement rather than just slower deterioration.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many gaming jobs were lost in 2025?
According to industry advocate Amir Satvat’s December 17 forecast, approximately 9,175 gaming industry jobs will be lost by the end of 2025. This represents a 41 percent decrease from 2024’s 15,631 layoffs but remains higher than any year before 2023. From 2022 through the projected end of 2025, the gaming industry has eliminated approximately 43,806 jobs.
Why are Amir Satvat’s layoff numbers higher than other trackers?
Satvat’s numbers run approximately 3,000 higher than public trackers because he fills in situations with incomplete reporting, includes layoffs that never hit the news cycle, and accurately counts gaming-specific portions of broader corporate cuts. His quarterly audits with community verification reveal underreporting that other trackers miss, providing a more accurate picture of gaming-specific job losses.
What caused the gaming industry layoff crisis?
The crisis stems primarily from COVID-era overexpansion followed by revenue returning to pre-pandemic levels, leaving studios with unsustainable cost structures. Additional factors include rising development costs for blockbuster games, failed live service launches, unrealistic growth expectations, and ineffective leadership decisions. The gaming industry is tens of billions of dollars smaller than companies projected during their expansion phase.
Were 2025 layoffs better than 2024?
Yes, 2025 saw significantly fewer layoffs than 2024’s peak, with approximately 9,175 job losses compared to 15,631 in 2024. However, 2025’s total still exceeds every year before 2023, meaning the industry hasn’t recovered so much as it’s destroying itself at a slower pace. The four-year total of over 43,000 lost jobs represents unprecedented damage to the workforce.
Which companies had the biggest gaming layoffs in 2024-2025?
Major layoffs hit Microsoft (multiple rounds totaling thousands across Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and ZeniMax), Sony (900 people across PlayStation studios), Electronic Arts (670 people), Epic Games (roughly 900 people), Riot Games (530 people), Embracer Group (over 8,000 across multiple studios), and numerous other publishers and developers of all sizes.
How many game developers were personally laid off?
According to GDC’s 2025 State of the Game Industry report surveying over 3,000 developers, 11 percent were personally laid off in 2024. Overall, 41 percent of game developers were impacted by layoffs in some way, whether losing their own jobs, watching teams shrink, or working at companies where cuts occurred. That’s up from 35 percent in the previous year.
Will gaming layoffs continue in 2026?
Unknown, but 58 percent of surveyed developers expressed concern about further layoffs occurring. While 2025’s slowdown suggests the worst may be over, the industry hasn’t demonstrated commitment to sustainable growth that would prevent future cycles of expansion and contraction. Until companies prioritize long-term stability over short-term financial engineering, the threat remains.
A Grim Milestone Nobody Wanted
Yes, gaming industry layoffs are down in 2025 compared to 2024’s catastrophic peak. That’s technically progress. But celebrating a 41 percent reduction when the baseline was an unprecedented crisis feels absurd. Over 9,000 people still lost their jobs this year. Over 43,000 have been cut across four years. Hundreds of games worth of collective experience has been eliminated from the industry.
The human cost extends far beyond the statistics. Developers who survived layoffs work under constant anxiety about whether they’re next. Junior developers can’t break into the industry because entry-level positions vanished. Talented veterans are leaving gaming permanently because the boom-bust cycle isn’t sustainable for people trying to build careers and support families.
The fact that we’re measuring progress by how many fewer thousands of people lost their jobs shows how normalized this dysfunction has become. Gaming is a $200 billion global industry that continues growing, yet companies treat their workforce as expendable resources to be discarded whenever quarterly projections miss targets. Until leadership commits to sustainable long-term practices instead of reactionary cost-cutting, the threat of another brutal cycle looms over everyone working in games. The numbers may be down, but the crisis is far from over.