Entertainment

About One in Three Game Industry Professionals Were Laid Off in Two Years, GDC Survey Finds

Vince MaglayaPublished 9m ago2 min readBased on 2 sources
About One in Three Game Industry Professionals Were Laid Off in Two Years, GDC Survey Finds
source:gdconf.com

About one in three games industry professionals surveyed said they had been laid off in the past two years. The figure is 34%, according to the 15th edition of the State of the Game Industry survey from the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which polled more than 2,600 people worldwide. Video Games Chronicle reported the results on 12 November 2026.

The share has risen since the last edition. GDC's previous survey, published in January, put the overall figure at 28%. In the United States, 39% of respondents said they had been laid off, up from 33% in the earlier report.

The layoffs are recent for many people. Of those who had been laid off, 25% said their most recent one happened in the past three months. Another 43% said it happened between three and 12 months ago. Repeat layoffs were less common: 17% said they had been laid off twice in two years, and 3% said three or more times.

Finding new work has been slow. Of the laid-off respondents, 54% said they were still unemployed, rising to 59% in the United States. Among the laid-off group, 27% said they had sent at least 100 job applications.

Those who still have jobs are not all confident about the months ahead. Some 45% of employed respondents at least slightly agreed that their job was secure for the next 12 months. Of the unemployed respondents, 72% said they were not confident of finding a new job within the next year.

The mood across the industry is worried. Eighty-one per cent of all respondents agreed with the statement "I am concerned about my future in the game industry", and 51% agreed strongly. Meanwhile, 73% disagreed with the statement "I am hopeful about where the game industry is headed".

GDC runs the annual Game Developers Conference, a trade event where developers, publishers and tools makers meet to share work. The next edition is scheduled for 1 to 4 March 2027 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California, and is advertised as featuring more than 700 sessions, workshops and summits.

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