The online game firm Epic Video games is shedding greater than 1,000 staff, it mentioned on Tuesday, citing a drop within the period of time persons are spending taking part in Fortnite.
“The downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025 means we’re spending considerably greater than we’re making, and now we have to make main cuts to maintain the corporate funded,” Tim Sweeney, the corporate’s chief govt, wrote in a weblog put up. “This layoff, along with over $500 million of recognized value financial savings in contracting, advertising and marketing and shutting some open roles places us in a extra secure place.”
The reduce represents about 20 % of the work power at Epic Video games, an organization spokeswoman mentioned.
It was the second time lately that the corporate, which is predicated in North Carolina, had introduced main job cuts. In 2023, Epic Video games laid off 830 staff, or about 16 % of its work power, citing decrease revenue margins for Fortnite. “I’m sorry we’re right here once more,” Mr. Sweeney wrote in his weblog put up.
A few of the challenges Epic Video games is going through are issues for the broader online game business, Mr. Sweeney wrote: Slower progress, weaker spending, a drop in gross sales of recent online game consoles in comparison with the earlier technology of consoles, and video games “competing for time towards different more and more participating types of leisure.”
A few of the issues Epic faces are distinctive and associated to Fortnite, the favored multiplayer capturing sport launched in 2017 that features spinoffs like Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Pageant.
“Regardless of Fortnite remaining one of the vital 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 cell and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones,” Mr. Sweeney wrote.
Final yr, Apple restored Fortnite to the App Retailer in the US, practically 5 years after Apple and Google kicked it out of their app shops and Epic Video games sued each corporations in an antitrust case. Epic Video games introduced simply days in the past that Fortnite was again on Google Play.
Whereas Fortnite is free to obtain, Epic Video games mentioned earlier this month that it was elevating the value of V-Bucks, the in-game foreign money gamers can use to purchase outfits, often known as skins, and different accouterments. “The price of operating Fortnite has gone up rather a lot and we’re elevating costs to assist pay the payments,” Epic mentioned in asserting the value improve.
Regardless of its issues, Fortnite stays a well-liked sport.
It led the US in February amongst month-to-month energetic customers of each PlayStation and Xbox, Mat Piscatella, a online game business analyst at Circana, a market analysis agency, wrote in a put up on social media, citing Circana’s monitoring knowledge.
However there was a drop in engagement, the info confirmed. The typical PlayStation person performed Fortnite for 16 hours final month, down from 21 hours in February 2025, Mr. Piscatella wrote. Xbox customers averaged 15 hours of Fortnite in February, down from 19 hours in February 2025.
Joost van Dreunen, a market analyst and professor at New York College, mentioned that Fortnite should compete for consideration not solely with different in style video games like Roblox but additionally with social media corporations like TikTok and short-form movies on YouTube and different platforms.
Its issues, he mentioned, are a part of a broader shift within the business, which is rising extra in China than it’s in the US.
“We’re witnessing in real-time the decline of American cultural dominance in gaming,” Mr. van Dreunen mentioned. “One in all these landmarks like Fortnite is beginning to really feel the burn as the buyer leisure business is slowly transferring from West to East in its monetary gravity level.”
Mr. Sweeney wrote that the employees who had been laid off would obtain a severance package deal that features at the very least 4 months of base pay, with extra primarily based on tenure. Epic Video games can even prolong well being care protection for six months to U.S.-based staff who’ve been laid off, Mr. Sweeney wrote.
