Game layoffs slow down faster than expected in 2025

Layoffs in the game industry have decreased faster than expected in early 2025, with actual layoffs at 63% of initial projections. Job resources created by Amir Satvat have helped nearly 3,500 people find game industry jobs, providing valuable data for predictions. The trend suggests a more positive outlook for hiring versus layoffs compared to the past two and a half years.

Amir Satvat has a big community of helpers.

Image Credit: Amir Satvat

Satvat, in his spare time, has helped create easily accessible resources to help people find game jobs. And nearly 3,500 people have found jobs through those resources. These resources have given him access to data about job seekers and the companies advertising openings. That allows him to make predictions that no one else can do about hiring and firing in the industry. Satvat predicted that hiring would exceed firing for the first time in January for the first time in about 30 months, and that held true for the first quarter of 2025.

Amir Satvat’s data on game industry job outlook.

Now he said that game layoffs year-to-date are coming in light at 63% of initial projections.

“I can’t predict what will happen tomorrow – or next week, month, or year,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “But I can tell you this: based on the best available actuals, known likely scenarios, all our community data (millions of lifetime observations across many categories), and time series forecasting, 2025 games layoffs (actuals + forecast) are currently trending at 6,145 versus the initial forecast of 9,769 — in terms of the expected layoffs for 2025 in gaming.

“There will undoubtedly be ups and downs. But this is the most encouraging gap between trend and projection I’ve seen since we started publicly sharing this exercise in the second half of 2024,” Satvat wrote. “I just hope to god it holds.”

Satvat is one of the only folks producing meaningful employment data in gaming. As an example, he predicted that hiring would exceed firing for the first time in January for the first time in about 30 months. He estimates there are 243,000 people directly employed in jobs. And he noted that someone over 50 has the same poor chances of getting a job in the game industry as someone who just graduated from college.

Source:GB Daily

Game layoffs slow down faster than expected in 2025