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Epic Games announced on March 24, 2026, that it would lay off more than 1,000 employees. CEO Tim Sweeney said Fortnite engagement had declined since 2025, leaving the company spending significantly more than it earned. Epic also identified more than $500 million in savings from contracting, marketing and closing some open roles.
How many Epic Games employees are affected?
Epic’s March 24 statement says, “Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees.” The Associated Press reported that the company had 4,000 employees after the cuts and put the layoffs at about 20% of its workforce. Those workforce figures are AP’s reporting; Epic’s own announcement used “over 1,000.”
This is not Epic’s first major round of cuts in recent years. AP reported that the company laid off 830 employees in 2023, about 16% of its workforce at that time. The percentages describe different workforce totals at different dates, so they should not be read as a like-for-like measure of the company’s size.
Why did Epic say it was making cuts?
Fortnite engagement and financial pressure
Sweeney said a downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025 meant Epic was “spending significantly more than we’re making.” He presented the engagement decline as part of the company’s reason for making major cuts to keep it funded. Epic’s statement did not give a percentage decline, player count or time-spent figure, and the cited reporting does not independently measure the downturn.
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Industry headwinds and Epic-specific challenges
Epic also described broader pressures facing the games business: slower growth, weaker spending, tougher cost economics, current console sales below the prior generation, and competition with other forms of entertainment for people’s time. These are management’s explanations, not independently quantified findings in the cited material.
The company also cited its own challenges, including difficulty delivering consistent “Fortnite magic” each season, an early-stage return to mobile, and the cost and risk of acting as an industry vanguard. The Associated Press similarly noted the mobile-return challenge following Epic’s court battles with Apple and Google over app-store payments.
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What other savings did Epic identify?
Alongside the layoffs, Epic said it had identified more than $500 million in savings through contracting, marketing and closing some open roles. The announcement did not break that total down by category. Sweeney said the combined measures would put the company in a more stable position.
Epic had also raised V-Bucks prices the week before the announcement. TechCrunch reported the timing and quoted Epic’s explanation that “the cost of running Fortnite has gone up a lot.” That reporting does not establish that the price change caused the layoffs.
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Did Epic say AI caused the layoffs?
No. Sweeney said the layoffs were not related to AI. That is Epic’s stated explanation; it is not an independent assessment of the circumstances of every affected role.
What support did Epic promise affected employees?
Epic said affected employees would receive at least four months of base pay, with additional pay based on tenure, and extended Epic-paid healthcare coverage. The company specified six months of coverage for U.S. employees. It also announced accelerated stock vesting through January 2027 and up to two years to exercise stock options.
The healthcare detail is explicitly specified for U.S. employees; the announcement does not establish that the same coverage terms apply to employees in every country.
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