Epic Games to lay off more than 1,000 as Fortnite play falls

The American video game company Epic Games said it will lay off more than 1,000 employees. The company also said the cuts, together with reductions in contracting and marketing, would produce more than 500 million dollars in savings. Epic linked the move to a sharp decline in the number of people playing its flagship game Fortnite. The announcement sits within a longer run of job losses across the video game industry from 2022 through 2026.

A layoff is a permanent or long-term removal of jobs, as distinct from a short furlough. More than 1,000 employees is the size of the staff reduction Epic described, and the company did not publish a more exact headcount in the account. Savings of more than 500 million dollars cover both the job cuts and spending on outside contractors and marketing. The figure is a savings total, not a statement of revenue or profit.

Fortnite is Epic's best-known game, a live online title that depends on a large returning audience. A sharp decline in the number of people playing it reduces the business that funds new content, events, and staff. Live-service games are built to be updated for years, so a drop in players can force a smaller production plan. Epic presented the layoffs as a response to that drop.

The video game industry has been cutting jobs across many studios during the period labeled 2022 to 2026. Epic's announcement is one company action inside that wider pattern, not a count of the whole industry. Contracting cuts mean less work for outside firms that supply art, technology, or services. Marketing cuts mean less spending on promotion of the games.

Epic Games is a privately held American studio and publisher. Its decisions about staff are not subject to the same public filings as a listed company, so the public account is the statement the company made. The report does not name which offices or teams will lose jobs. It also does not give the current size of the company or the date the layoffs take effect.

Epic will remove more than 1,000 jobs and seek more than 500 million dollars in savings from those cuts and from contracting and marketing. The company tied the plan to fewer people playing Fortnite. The move adds a large studio to the multi-year wave of game-industry layoffs. Further detail on which projects continue was not part of the announcement as reported.