Over 1,000 games industry professionals lost their jobs in April, up 132% year-over-year
Game companies laid off at least 1,003 employees in April 2024. The industry continues to go through a tough period, with hundreds of jobs being cut every month.
Palia
According to the Game Industry Layoffs project, the number of games industry professionals who lost jobs last month was up 132.7% from the same period last year, when the number of layoffs totaled 431.
It is worth noting that the actual scale of job cuts is likely higher since some layoffs also remain untracked by Game Industry Layoffs. For example, mobile developer Belka Games, which laid off 20% of staff last week.
Below are the largest layoffs that occurred in April 2024:
- Take-Two Interactive — about 600 people, also reducing its office footprint and shutting down several game projects;
- Possibility Space — about 70 people, the studio was closed by Jeff Strain (known as co-founder of ArenaNet and Undead Labs), who blamed the decision on employees leaking information about an announced game and also announced his plans to departure from the games industry;
- Singularity 6 — 49 people, or 35% of its workforce; this happened just a few months after the team launched its debut game Palia;
- Ubisoft — 45 people across its global publishing and Asia-Pacific teams;
- Relic Entertainment — 41 people (this happened right after the studio’s split from SEGA).
Other studios that were hit with layoffs last month include Kwalee, Spearhead Games, Bold Spirit Game Studio, Traega Entertainment, NCSoft, KeokeN Interactive, Flaming Fowl Studios, and more.
Overall, at least 9,400 people have already lost their jobs since the beginning of 2024, including 5,995 in January and over 2,000 in February. For comparison, the number of layoffs in 2023 is estimated at 10,500.
