Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees, Cites Fortnite Troubles
- Epic Games is cutting 1,000+ jobs due to declining Fortnite engagement and rising costs.
- The move follows V-Bucks price hikes and large creator payouts via Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
- Epic cites industry slowdown; layoffs aren’t related to AI and include severance support.
Epic Games, the company founded and run by Tim Sweeney that’s behind the Epic Game Store, Unreal Engine, and Fortnite, announced today that it’s laying off over 1,000 staff. Sweeney posted a message on the Epic website citing the “downturn” in Fortnite since last year as being the primary reason.
People have been quick to note the discrepancy between the recent raising of V-Bucks prices to avoid layoffs and Epic paying out “$720million” to Fortnite creators; this number refers to the amount Epic has officially listed as being paid out since the launch of UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) in March 2023.
As for the news of lay-offs, Sweeny posted: “The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.”
“Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season,” he added. “We’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”
Jump to:
More Fun, Less V-Bucks
This news comes just a few days after Chapter 7 Season 2 launched, on March 19, with a Showdown theme, where players can choose to side with either Team Foundation or Team Ice King. And this launch followed news that Epic was raising the prices of V-Bucks “to help pay the bills.” As such, social media was flooded last week with attempts at a Fortnite boycott, but this didn’t come to pass.
Sweeny also cited problems in the industry at large in his news post, including “slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics.” He also highlighted how games are “competing for time against other increasingly-engaging forms of entertainment,” although without saying exactly what these might be. He did make sure to point out that none of the layoffs are because of AI, even though he said this has a place in video game development if it improves productivity.
The “downturn” he noted may not seem like much to gamers, as Fortnite still pulls in around 30–40 million players (as daily active users). However, this is down significantly from 2024, when Fortnite had over 650 million daily active users. By contrast, 2024 also saw a total of 70,000 creators join Fortnite (up from 23,000 in 2023), with this number remaining steady throughout last year.
Out of the Blue
Those affected will receive severance pay and extended health care coverage, where applicable, but that hasn’t stopped impacted staff from being quick to post on social media. Evan Kinney is one of the most vocal. A Principal Engineer who’d been with Epic Games since July 2017, he said on X that the news came out of the blue:
“I have done so much for this company and our games. So many late nights, so many weekends, so many live events, and competitive events, and new features, and new seasons. Solid performance reviews every time with multiple people mentioning how critical I am and what an impact I make across multiple teams, just to be thrown out. I don’t get it.”
Sweeney ended his news with an announcement that there’ll be a company meeting on Thursday to discuss a “roadmap.” Fortnite itself has been impacted by the layoffs as several modes are being shut down: Rocket Racing, Ballistic, and the Festival Battle Stage are all going the way of the dodo, with most modes being pulled from Fortnite on April 16.
