The Ripple Effect of Layoffs in the Gaming Industry Over the Last Two Years

Mass dismissals have been the predominant narrative of the last two years — and they are far from finished. The sector is still feeling the repercussions of this emergency, despite many players beginning to observe signs of recovery.

Let’s take a closer look at the layoffs of 2023-2024 in Europe to understand who was impacted the most, how long it took professionals to find new employment, and how their salaries and working conditions were affected.

Our primary source of information is the Large Games Industry Employment Survey 2024, carried out in Spring 2024 and presented at the Devcom conference in August 2024. GamesIndustry.biz previously covered a discussion by Tanja Loktionova, one of the survey’s coordinators, who shared its early results. The complete report is now available for free on the InGame Job portal.

In this article, we will delve deeper into the wave of mass layoffs within the industry, which was a focal point of the Large Games Industry Employment Survey 2024.

Who experienced the most significant impact?

To summarize: the anonymized survey collected over 1,800 responses from professionals in the gaming industry. The majority were mid-level or senior specialists (9% Junior, 29% Mid-level, 30% Senior, 28% Lead/Top).

Furthermore, 19% of respondents had over ten years of experience in gaming. In essence, these were primarily seasoned professionals who might have been anticipated to be secure from layoffs.

However, even amongst them, some were impacted: 15% reported being laid off in 2023-2024 but had already secured new jobs by the time of the survey. Another 6.2% indicated they had been laid off and remained unemployed at the time of the survey.

In total, 21.6% of respondents indicated they had faced layoffs. So, who are these professionals who found themselves without work?

According to seniority levels, the survey illustrates that layoffs affected professionals across the board, regardless of experience. Between 23% and 26% of juniors, mid-levels, and seniors reported being let go. At the Lead/Top level, the proportion was somewhat lower, at 15-16%.

Nonetheless, the recovery times varied by seniority. Senior-level professionals tended to find new positions relatively quickly, while mid-levels and juniors encountered more hurdles. By the time of the survey, 10% of mid-levels and 9% of juniors were still unemployed after their layoffs. In contrast, only 3-5% of seniors, leads, and top-tier professionals remained out of work.

Among the specializations most affected by layoffs, artists (28%), QA specialists (27%), and HR/recruitment professionals (25%) bore the brunt. Artists and testers, in particular, struggled to find new jobs quickly — 10% of artists and 11% of testers were still unemployed at the time of the survey.

Salaries for QA and HR/recruitment professionals also fell in 2024 compared to 2023. This decrease appears closely linked to layoffs, as professionals in these sectors faced limited job opportunities and generally had to accept less favorable offers to shorten their job search duration.

How long did professionals take to secure new jobs after layoffs?

Of the total respondents who changed jobs in 2023-2024, more than half found a new position in less than three months. We believe this group largely includes individuals who voluntarily left their previous roles.

The concerning statistics are those representing longer job search periods: 12.3% took between six months and a year, while 8.1% reported searching for over a year.

When examining seniority levels, juniors emerge as the most vulnerable group — nearly half of all junior respondents indicated they took more than six months to find a new job. Mid-levels and seniors had similar timelines, with mid-levels lagging slightly behind seniors in terms of duration. Only 5-6% of mid-levels and seniors spent over a year searching for a new role.

Top-level consultants and senior leaders displayed quicker job searches, with 62% securing a new role in under three months. However, 25% of them reported it took more than six months to find their next position. We believe this is due to professionals at this level having more time and flexibility to carefully choose roles that meet their expectations and requirements.

The forthcoming section, which breaks down outcomes by professional fields, underscores how challenging the job search was for QA specialists, artists, and, to some extent, HR managers and recruiters.

QA specialists experienced the most difficulties; nearly half of respondents in this group took over six months to find a new job, with 26% job hunting for more than a year. Similarly, 10% of artists and HR/recruitment professionals also reported spending over a year finding their next role.

Sasha Kononenko, recruitment lead and partner at Values Cost, mentioned: “There is an interesting trend with UA managers: from late winter to mid-summer 2024, there was a noticeable surge of candidates actively seeking jobs. However, by autumn, most had already secured new roles, and those who had been with their new companies for a while are indeed quite reluctant to consider any changes.

“Artists are facing a challenging situation
“`— those entering the employment sector are facing challenges in discovering new opportunities due to intense competition and a scarcity of available positions.”

Who needed to change industries?

A total of 10% of participants left the gaming sector during the wave of widespread layoffs.

The highest percentage of individuals who departed after struggling to find work was among juniors, at 31%. This is significant. Consider this: nearly one-third of entry-level professionals in the gaming industry (potential mid-level experts of tomorrow) departed the field after being unable to secure a position. This ongoing crisis is driving young talent away, slowing the industry’s growth and impairing its ability to benefit from the fresh, innovative ideas that these individuals typically contribute.

Other groups also experienced departures during this period: 11% of mid-level professionals, 8% of senior staff, 5% of team leads, and 11% of high-level consultants exited the industry.

By specialization, 28% of QA specialists, 32% of HR managers and recruiters, 15% of analysts, 14% of product and project managers, 9% of entrepreneurs, and 5% of programmers transitioned out of gaming. Regarding game designers, the specific reasoning for the 10% who left the industry remains unclear, though this represents the percentage of respondents who indicated they felt compelled to shift fields.

How did working conditions change for those who switched jobs during the layoffs?

According to the survey:

• 44% of professionals who changed jobs in 2023-2024 experienced an increase in salary and/or job advancement.
• 24% found themselves in lower positions and/or receiving reduced pay.
• 21% discovered that their salary and job title remained the same.
• And, as previously mentioned, 10% needed to transition to different industries.

Before the crisis, job changes were generally a valid reason for salary increases and career progression. However, the recent data indicates that mass layoffs have disrupted this trend.

In 2023-2024, 25% of mid-level professionals and 26% of seniors reported accepting lower salaries and/or positions at their new jobs. Similarly, 15% of team leads and 10% of high-level consultants experienced the same situation.

Furthermore, nearly a quarter of respondents across all levels of seniority (including juniors) indicated that their income and job title remained roughly the same after making a job change.

Juniors, however, encountered unique challenges. A significant 36% of entry-level professionals reported less favorable conditions (lower salary or position) after changing jobs, while only 11% mentioned maintaining the same terms.

By field of expertise, it’s no surprise that QA specialists and HR professionals were the most affected. Additionally, many game designers (25%), artists (31%), and programmers (27%) faced a decline in income and/or career advancement after changing jobs last year.

For this article, we spoke anonymously with a laid-off employee from one of the leading game studios. Here is their remark:

“It took me about six months to find a new job. I should mention that during the first