More Than Half of Video Game Workers Laid Off Over the Past Two Years Are Still Unemployed, GDC Industry Report Finds

One third of video game industry workers say they have been laid off over the past 24 months, and more than half of those surveyed say they haven’t found a new job since.

According to the 15th State of the Game Industry Report, released Thursday by the organizers of the GDC Festival of Gaming, 62% say they have applied for 20 or more jobs, while 25% have applied for 100 or more. Additionally, 21% of those surveyed overall are unemployed, up from 13% in last year’s report, 9% of re-employed respondents have left the game industry, and 4% have started their own companies or studios.

“One in three (34%) respondents have been laid off in the last 24 months, up from 28% in the previous report, and the number rises to 39% for U.S.-based respondents,” the report says. “Of the one-in-three, 68% were laid off in the past 12 months. Nearly half (49%) said their companies have conducted some form of layoffs in the past 12 months: 68% at AAA studios, 35% at older indie studios, and 14% at younger indie studios.”

This year’s State of Gaming Industry Report is being released earlier than usual, as the GDC Festival of Gaming organizers say “this edition and reports going forward have been adjusted to release near year’s end, befitting the report’s reflections on the current state of the industry and a snapshot of the year.”

The report is calculated based on the responses of over 2,600 game industry professionals, which GDC says is a 12% increase from the prior year.

Additional key findings in this year’s report include 40% of game industry professionals reporting they use generative AI tools as part of their job, up 4% year over year, and 57% of those say they use it daily.

Per the report, “Usage is highest among those working in business operations & services (71%), at mobile-only studios (70%), and those working on free-to-play games (58%). Company policy tends to vary significantly by company size, with 27% of AAA workers feeling encouraged or pressured to use generative AI, compared to only 9% of indie studio workers.”

Elsewhere int he report, 10% of respondents say they are developing for the next PlayStation and 8% for Xbox’s “Project Helix.” PC (83%) remains the dominant development platform, and the figures for PlayStation 5 (47%) and Xbox Series X/S (40%) are consistent with the previous survey.

For a complete look at the 15th State of the Game Industry Report’s findings, including additional statistics, quotes from respondents, and visual representations of the data, see the full report, available here.

The 41st edition of GDC, now known as the GDC Festival of Gaming, is set for March 1-4, 2027 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.