Epic confirms layoffs of over 1,000 employees as Fortnite engagement slides

Epic Games is shedding over 1,000 staff from its workforce, the corporate has confirmed by sharing an inner discover from CEO Tim Sweeney publicly.

Citing a downturn in engagement with Fortnite that has continued since 2025, which has meant that they’re “spending considerably greater than we’re making,” Sweeney states that they’re making these cuts to maintain the corporate funded. The studio can also be reducing contract work, advertising and marketing and eradicating job listings as a part of an effort to make $500 million in price financial savings. The monetary squeeze can also be being seen in Epic adjusting the cost of Fortnite V-Bucks.

Sweeney states that this isn’t associated to AI – “To the extent it improves productiveness, we wish to have as many superior builders creating nice content material and tech as we will.” – however somewhat the better competitors for participant consideration, the fixed must maintain Fortnite as participating as attainable being a tall activity, and Epic’s personal distinctive issues of selecting to go to courtroom over cellular gaming with Apple and Epic. That’s a state of affairs that they’re solely now beginning to resolve, with Fortnite only returning to the Google Play Store globally last week.

From a headcount that was final charted as being north of 4,000, that’s an enormous portion of the corporate. The final layoffs at Epic got here again in 2024 when over 800 staff (16% on the time) have been let go.

These affected will obtain a severance bundle with no less than 4 months of base pay (six months within the US and extra based mostly on tenure), prolonged healthcare protection from Epic and accelerated inventory choices vesting.

Right here’s the complete assertion.

Immediately we’re shedding over 1000 Epic staff. I’m sorry we’re right here once more. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025 means we’re spending considerably greater than we’re making, and we now have to make main cuts to maintain the corporate funded. This layoff, along with over $500 million of recognized price financial savings in contracting, advertising and marketing, and shutting some open roles places us in a extra steady place.

Among the challenges we’re going through are industry-wide challenges: slower progress, weaker spending, and more durable price economics; present consoles promoting lower than final technology’s; and video games competing for time towards different increasingly-engaging types of leisure.

And a few of our challenges are distinctive to Epic. Regardless of Fortnite remaining one of the profitable video games on the planet, we’ve had challenges delivering constant Fortnite magic with each season; we’re solely within the early levels of returning to cellular and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the {industry}’s vanguard we now have taken lots of bullets in a battle which is barely within the early days of paying off for ourselves and all builders.

Because it’s a factor now, I ought to be aware that the layoffs aren’t associated to AI. To the extent it improves productiveness, we wish to have as many superior builders creating nice content material and tech as we will.

What we now must do is evident: construct superior Fortnite experiences with recent seasonal content material, gameplay, story, and dwell occasions; speed up developer instruments with better stability and functionality as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the subsequent technology of Epic with big launch plans in direction of the top of the 12 months.

This isn’t our first time being right here. Epic survived upheavals in 1990’s with the transfer from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; within the 2000’s constructing console video games with Gears of Warfare; and in 2012 transferring to on-line gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Every time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed management place.

Market situations immediately are probably the most excessive we’ve seen since these early days, with large upheaval within the {industry} accompanied by large alternative for the businesses that come out as winners on the opposite facet. That’s what we’re aiming to do for our gamers, and we purpose to deliver different like-minded builders within the {industry} alongside on the journey to construct an more and more open and vibrant way forward for leisure collectively.

At Epic, we pleasure ourselves in solely hiring the {industry}’s greatest, so it is extremely painful to half with so many gifted individuals. The oldsters impacted by the layoffs will obtain a severance bundle that features no less than 4 months of base pay, with extra based mostly on tenure. We’re additionally extending Epic-paid healthcare protection.

For instance, within the U.S., they’ll obtain paid protection for six months. We’ll additionally speed up their inventory choices vesting by way of January 2027 and prolong fairness train choices for as much as two years.

We’ll have an organization assembly Thursday to speak concerning the roadmap in additional element.

-Tim

Supply: Epic