GDC 2026 State of the Game Industry Reveals Impact of Layoffs, Generative AI, and More
gdconf.com
Discover key insights from the 2026 State of the Game Industry report, covering layoffs, generative AI, unionization, platform trends, and more. Download the free report now!

The effects of recent layoffs continue to spread across the industry. Over one in four (28%) survey respondents were laid off in the past two years, increasing to one-third (33%) for those in the United States, and half said their current (or most recent) employer has conducted layoffs in the past 12 months. Those at AAA studios were highly likely to have experienced layoffs at their companies; two-thirds of respondents at AAA studios said their companies had layoffs. One-third of people working at indie studios reported the same.

The smaller survey of students illustrates widespread pessimism among future developers and leaders eager to enter the space. Three-fourths (74%) of surveyed students said they are concerned about their future job prospects in the game industry. Students noted the lack of entry-level jobs, increased competition from laid-off workers with more experience and AI-led displacement.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    14·
    4 hours ago

    I was about to say that I knew that COVID-19 caused video game sales to surge, and then crash, and there was over-hiring that had happened in response to those sales, but a third seems like an insanely high number.

    Looking at WP, it sounds like the surge was actually that high…but for mobile OS games and console games, not PC, where the surge was much more muted. I also hadn’t realized that mobile OS video game spending had become that much larger than PC spending.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022–2025_video_game_industry_layoffs

    The COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in interest in gaming globally, and was a period of dramatic expansion in the industry, with many mergers and acquisitions conducted. In many cases companies over-expanded, as this rapid COVID-era growth was unsustainable. The industry began to slow in 2022, and amid spiralling costs and a shift in consumer habits, layoffs began.

    The first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a sharp increase in revenue for the gaming sector worldwide as people looked for indoor entertainment.[56] According to IDC, in 2020, revenue from mobile games climbed by 32.8% to $99.9 billion, while expenditure on digital PC and Mac games increased by 7.4% to $35.6 billion.[57] The amount spent on home console games increased significantly as well, reaching $42.9 billion, up 33.9%.[58][59]

    In the ensuing years, this growing pattern abruptly stopped.[60] Revenue growth from mobile gaming fell by 15% in 2021, and then fell even further in 2022 and 2023, to -3.3% and -3.1%, respectively. Sales of PC and Mac games saw a brief rise of 8.7% in 2021, a drop of 1.4% in 2022, and a rebound of 2.1% in 2023.[61] Similarly, after a surge in 2020, console game spending plateaued in 2021 with growth at 0.7%, followed by a decline of 3.4% in 2022, before returning to growth at 5.9% in 2023.[59][62]

    EDIT: Based on those numbers, the surge in mobile and console sales combined was basically equivalent in value to the entirety of PC video game sales. It’s like the equivalent of the entire PC video gaming industry materialized, existed for a few years, and then disappeared.