The GDC has published its annual report on the video games industry for 2025, which, like 2023’s report, contains far too many grim statistics.
Each year GDC surveys north of 3,000 developers for its State of the Game Industry report, so while this isn’t the entire industry by a long shot, it does provide a window into the shifts of the video game industry each year.
A key, unfortunate stat, is that of the 3,000+ developers surveyed, GDC found that 11% of them had lost their job from layoffs in the last 12 months, and 41% of those surveyed said that they had been impacted by layoffs.
Both of those numbers are increases from last year, with the 11% stat up from 7% the year before, and the 41% stat up from 35% in 2024. The GDC report also put it another way, saying “One in 10 game developers have been laid off in the past year.”
Broken down by discipline, 19% of developers laid off worked in narrative, 16% worked in production and management, 16% were artists, 12% were engineers and programmers, 9% were game designers and only 6% of those laid off worked in business and finance.
A stat that went up, but stayed mostly the same compared to last year is that 58% of developers are concerned about more layoffs coming, which is only a 2% increase from 2024’s report.
“Developers are feeling the weight of this across the board,” the GDC’s report says. “Last year, a majority (53%) of developers said there had been no layoffs at their companies: Today, that number is down to 43%. More developers saw their direct colleagues (29%) being laid off that workers in other teams and departments (18%). In addition, 4% said their studios were shut down. It’s a widespread issue that has yet to stabilize.”
Source – [GDC]