In the past year, gaming companies from California have been particularly active in conducting layoffs. Journalist Stephen Totilo highlighted in his Game File newsletter that this state accounted for about a third of all gaming industry layoffs in 2024.
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This information was shared with Totilo by an expert tracking layoffs in the industry. The expert also noted that since the beginning of the year, gaming companies around the world have let go of 15,000 employees.
Totilo's information partly aligns with the data from the Game Industry Layoffs portal. According to their estimates, a total of 14,915 gaming professionals lost their jobs from January 1 to December 12, 2024. Determining how many of them were based in California is difficult. Many companies with offices in California also have offices in other locations. These include, for example, Electronic Arts, which laid off more than 700 people over the year, and Unity, which saw 1,800 employees laid off. Reports on layoffs rarely specify the geographical location of these reductions.
Very rough estimates suggest that in 2024, companies with offices in California parted with nearly 7,000 employees. Leading in the number of layoffs are the aforementioned Unity and Electronic Arts, as well as Activision Blizzard — reports from the latter indicated that in February, they laid off 899 Californian employees.