We all know mass layoffs are a major issue the video games industry has been facing for the last several years. It doesn't matter if you helped develop the best-selling game of the year, or if your game died within a year, game developers cannot trust that their jobs will be safe, and a new survey from Skillsearch has just put some numbers to how it is impacting the way developers navigate the industry.
Spotted by GamesIndustry.Biz, Skillsearch's Salary and Satisfaction survey collected data from over 1,000 video games industry professionals across Europe, North America, the UK, APAC, and MENA, and found that 44% of respondents are looking to leave video games due to layoffs.
22% of respondents were laid off within the last 12 months, 12% had been laid off more than 12 months ago, and 28% of respondents had seen their studios go through layoffs even if they weren't impacted directly.
For those who do get laid off, only 45% of respondents have been able to find a new job, but only 27% of them actually feel secure in their new roles. 20% of respondents weren't able to find a new role for four to six months, but 33% were able to land a new job within one to three months.
That however, means the majority of respondents, 55%, have not been able to find a new role yet, which is why it's no surprise that close to half of respondents are looking outside of video games for their next job in the first place.
If all of this sounds familiar, that's because these numbers echo what we heard from the GDC State of the Game Industry 2026 Report. That report found that 1-in-4 game developers had been laid off in the last two years. 48% of those who lost their job were unable to land a new position.
"I've been laid off so many times in the last five to six years, had so many turbulent issues working in games. I have trauma and can't ever fully trust anywhere now," said one respondent to GDC's survey.
It's easy to think that those who are looking to leave are more than welcome to, because video games are a passion-driven industry, and there will always be people who dream of making their own games. Yes, there will always be people who want to make games, but the long-term impact of having developers leave the industry in droves because they can't trust they'll have a job in six months means the support structures for newcomers disappears.
When it's a rarity to find someone who has held a job at a studio for more than a few years, when veterans are pushed out because the bean counters at the top want to cut budgets, so they go after those who've been around the longest and demand the highest salaries, you lose opportunities for mentorship and upskilling that every newcomer sorely needs. It erodes the industry's largest players' ability to actually deliver quality titles and results in worse games over time.
It makes no sense that EA should lay off members of the Battlefield Studios teams after Battlefield 6 was the best-selling game in 2025. Those kinds of cuts and the recognition that you're not safe no matter how successful the game you helped make is will drive the industry's most talented to find new roles, and it'll drive hopeful newcomers to not even bother in the first place. All it does is make the video games industry seem more volatile, and if these cuts continue, the long-term consequences will be incredibly dire.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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