With two months still left on the calendar, the video game industry has already cut more jobs this year than it did in all of 2025. The ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker counts at least 10,977 positions lost so far in 2026, according to reporting from GameGPU and Tech4Gamers.

That compares with 9,197 cuts across the whole of 2025. Analysts at the tracker project that, if the current pace of restructuring continues, the full-year total could reach roughly 13,077 by the end of December — a figure approaching the all-time peak of 15,631 set in 2024.

What makes this wave stand out is that success no longer guarantees safety. Microsoft intends to lay off approximately 3,200 employees, per GameGPU, and even acclaimed studios like Arkane Lyon, with 217 people at risk, Supermassive Games (over 70 cut) and DON'T NOD (up to 85) have been hit.

The volatility has effectively eliminated any sense of job security in the industry.

The numbers come from the ASGC Games Industry Layoffs Tracker, which GameGPU reports shows at least 10,977 jobs lost by companies and development studios.

Beyond headcount, the tracker's tally includes approximately 35 studios that have ceased operations entirely and another 161 companies affected by restructuring.

Both GameGPU and Tech4Gamers attribute the cuts to budget revisions, changes in investment strategies and shifting priorities among major publishers, with high budgets and growing development costs repeatedly cited as the underlying pressure.

Tech4Gamers specifically flags EA, Ubisoft and Xbox as the worst examples this year.

The consequence, as Tech4Gamers puts it, is an industry so volatile that developers who ship a successful game cannot count on keeping their roles long-term.

Major platform holders are central to the damage — Xbox studios have suffered repeated cuts in recent months, and Microsoft's broader restructuring dwarfs most individual studio reductions.

Both trackers expect the damage to keep growing before year's end.

GameGPU reports analysts project the total could hit 13,077 by the end of December if restructuring continues at its current pace, and Tech4Gamers similarly predicts the year will finish at around 13,000 cuts, noting major companies including Xbox will lay off more employees in the remaining two months.

For workers, the practical picture is that no studio — independent or under a global publisher — appears insulated, and the industry's community and analysts are actively debating where it goes from here.