A 3rd of U.S. online game trade employees say they have been laid off within the final 12 months, in line with a brand new survey carried out by organizers of the newly relaunched Recreation Builders Convention (GDC).
Based mostly on responses from greater than 2,300 gaming trade professionals, the survey was “personalized by participant group to make sure probably the most related questions are answered by builders, entrepreneurs, executives, traders, and extra,” and the 2026 State of the Gaming Trade report discovered that 33% of U.S. respondents had been laid off previously two years.
On a worldwide scale, that statistic drops to twenty-eight%. Half of these surveyed reported that their present or most up-to-date employer had furloughed them previously 12 months.
In keeping with the report, “Staff at AAA studios are considerably extra prone to have skilled a layoff at their firm. Two-thirds of respondents at AAA studios stated there had been a layoff at their firm. One-third of workers at indie studios reported the identical.”
The group additionally surveyed a smaller group of gaming educators and college students to get a snapshot of the challenges dealing with the subsequent era.
The report, accessible at no cost obtain right here, offers the most recent information and evaluation on layoffs, generative AI adoption and sentiment, union initiatives, growth platforms and priorities, enterprise pressures, rising traits, and extra. Key insights from the report embrace:
The survey additionally discovered that 82% of U.S.-based respondents help unionizing gaming trade employees, with 5% opposed and 13% not sure. In keeping with the outcomes, “Assist was highest amongst employees incomes lower than $200,000 a 12 months (87%), employees who had been laid off previously two years (88%), and people underneath the age of 45 (86%). No respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 opposed unionization.”
The discharge of the brand new State of the Trade report comes forward of the GDC Pageant of Video games, which will probably be held in San Francisco from March ninth to thirteenth. This 12 months, organizers of the Recreation Builders Convention (GDC) have renamed the occasion to be a competition that focuses on a big a part of the gaming trade with the addition of a programming observe.
