Games Industry Layoffs Decrease Slightly in 2025, Yet Remain Alarming

The games industry continues to face challenging conditions, with layoff figures remaining high in 2025, albeit lower than the peak in 2024. According to Amir Satvat, business development director at Tencent Games, the total number of layoffs in the games industry for 2025 is approximately 9,175, slightly below his initial prediction of 9,769. This represents a significant decrease from the estimated 15,631 layoffs in 2024, but still exceeds the 8,500 layoffs reported in 2022, when the current crisis began. Satvat forecasts around 7,500 layoffs in 2026, indicating a slow recovery for the industry. However, he expects the proportion of available positions in North America and Western Europe to continue declining. Earlier in the year, Satvat noted that over 70% of layoffs occurred in North America, with a considerable impact on AAA studios, particularly in California. A survey released in October found that more than 26% of European game professionals experienced layoffs in the past year, with median salaries dropping substantially compared to 2024. The survey's findings suggest that salaries for programmers, especially Unity developers, have decreased by almost half due to a scarcity of open positions. Satvat predicts that while job opportunities will decrease in Western Europe and North America, they will increase in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. This shift is consistent with comments made by Lirui Ding, principal at the gaming venture capital firm Transcend Fund, regarding the industry's ongoing geographical shift. Chris Petrovic, chief business officer and board chairman at FunPlus, also commented on the industry's growth in different regions, citing emerging game development hubs such as China, Turkey, Israel, and Vietnam. The year 2025 saw numerous studio closures, including Toadman Interactive, Freejam, and nDreams Studio Orbital, among others. Reports also indicated that Ballistic Moon, the UK-based developer of the Until Dawn remake, was effectively closed after most of its staff were laid off. Additionally, Aheartfulofgames, the Spanish studio behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, faced closure after its owner, Outright Games, announced plans to make all employees redundant. Several studios, including Just Dance VR developer Soul Assembly, MechWarrior 5: Clans developer Piranha Games, and Crysis developer Crytek, reduced their staff numbers. Major gaming companies, such as Tencent Games, made significant cuts and divestments at their European studios. In February, the Tencent-owned Sumo Group announced it would focus exclusively on development services for partners, resulting in an impact on its studios and personnel. Splash Damage, acquired by Tencent in 2020, reported that jobs were at risk following the cancellation of Transformers: Reactivate. In September, the studio announced its acquisition by private-equity investors and subsequently placed the entire studio in consultation ahead of redundancies. NetEase studio Jar of Sparks announced it would seek a new publishing partner after NetEase withdrew its funding. The NetEase-backed studio Liquid Swords reported a round of job cuts in February. Microsoft made substantial job cuts in 2025, including a 3% reduction in staff in May and a major round of layoffs in July affecting approximately 9,000 people. The company's console rival, Sony, also made cuts, laying off staff at the PlayStation support studio Visual Arts and PS Studios Malaysia. Unity implemented another round of cuts in February, following around 1,800 job losses in January 2024. Amazon announced an enormous 14,000 layoffs in October, resulting in the cessation of work on the MMO New World. Meta laid off a number of employees in 2025, cutting 5% of staff in January and making further cuts to the Reality Labs division in April. Netflix-owned Night School Studio cut an undisclosed number of staff in February, and Krafton-owned Striking Distance Studios made layoffs in March. Square Enix implemented a fundamental restructuring in November, pulling resources away from overseas development studios and putting over 100 jobs at risk. Embracer-owned Crystal Dynamics cut staff in March, August, and November before unveiling Tomb Raider: Catalyst at the Game Awards in December. Warner Bros. Games announced it was shuttering Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. San Diego, as well as cancelling its upcoming Wonder Woman game. Ubisoft made numerous job cuts in 2025, including redundancies at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm, and Ubisoft Reflections, and announced the closure of Ubisoft Leamington. EA also cut a number of jobs, beginning with the EA studio Respawn cancelling two early-stage incubation projects and cutting developers from its Apex Legends and Star Wars: Jedi teams. Finally, there were a number of cuts at studios owned by Take-Two Interactive, including 2K Games and Rockstar Games. The Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain accused Take-Two-owned Rockstar Games of union busting after the studio dismissed 31 employees who were allegedly attempting to unionize.