Fortnite developer Epic Video games has introduced it’s shedding 1,000 employees, as a consequence of a “downturn in engagement” in its evergreen battle royale.
In a message to employees shared publicly this morning, Epic Video games boss Tim Sweeney mentioned the corporate was “spending considerably greater than we’re making”, that means that it now wanted to make “main cuts to maintain the corporate funded.”
The information comes only a week after the launch of Fortnite’s highly-anticipated new battle royale season, and two weeks after the corporate controversially raised the worth of the sport’s profitable V-Bucks in-game forex, prompting an enormous backlash from gamers.
“In the present day we’re shedding over 1,000 Epic workers,” Sweeney informed Epic Video games workers. “I am sorry we’re right here once more. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that began in 2025 means we’re spending considerably greater than we’re making, and we’ve to make main cuts to maintain the corporate funded.” In the present day’s layoffs are being accompanied by “over $500 million of recognized price financial savings” in contracting and advertising, he continued, whereas the hiring of some roles will stop.
“A number of the challenges we’re going through are industry-wide challenges,” Sweeney wrote, blaming “slower development, weaker spending, and more durable price economics.” Discussing that final level in additional element, Sweeney mentioned that present consoles had been promoting lower than final era, and famous that video games had been more and more competing for time in opposition to different types of leisure.
“And a few of our challenges are distinctive to Epic,” he continued. “Regardless of Fortnite remaining one of the vital profitable video games on this planet, we have had challenges delivering constant Fortnite magic with each season; we’re solely within the early levels of returning to cellular and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the {industry}’s vanguard we’ve taken numerous bullets in a battle which is just within the early days of paying off for ourselves and all builders.”
Initially launched again in 2017 as a easy PVE zombie shooter, Fortnite blew up in reputation when its builders rapidly launched a battle royale element, following the success of PUBG. The years that adopted noticed Fortnite capitalize on its success and change into a popular culture phenomenon, residence to record-breaking reside occasions and concert events, and crossovers with the world’s greatest leisure franchises.
In the present day, Fortnite is a platform the place its battle royale is only one gameplay mode amongst many, however its success has paled in comparison with the large playerbase of Roblox. Epic’s personal efforts to develop Fortnite past its shooter origins have had combined fortunes, whereas followers have complained that in addition they sapped sources from Fortnite’s foremost choices. The corporate’s December 2023 Large Bang relaunch which launched LEGO, racing and music modes didn’t develop the sport’s playerbase as hoped, and subsequent launches (together with an upcoming aggressive Enviornment possibility) have caught nearer to Fortnite’s shooter origins. That mentioned, a separate Disney mode backed by a $1.5 billion funding in Epic Video games stays in improvement.
In a separate announcement as we speak, Epic Video games mentioned its Pysonix-made Rocket Racing mode would go offline completely later this yr after beforehand being mothballed. Two different modes will likely be culled subsequent month, in the meantime: Competition Battle Stage, a extra aggressive tackle its foremost Harmonix-made music providing, and Fortnite Ballistic, an try at making a tactical shooter.
In the present day’s layoffs embrace excessive profile and long-standing Fortnite workforce members, together with principal engineer Evan Kinney, who posted his response on social media and mentioned he was “confused and bewildered” at being “thrown out” after years engaged on the sport and its well-liked reside occasions.
i’ve performed a lot for this firm and our video games
so many late nights
so many weekends
so many reside occasions, and aggressive occasions, and new options, and new seasonsstrong efficiency evaluations each time
with a number of folks mentioning how vital i’m and what an impression i…— Evanosaurus “Unrawrl Engine 5.7” Rex (@evankinney) March 24, 2026
“What we now have to do is evident,” Sweeney continued in his message to employees, telling them they wanted to “construct superior Fortnite experiences with recent seasonal content material, gameplay, story, and reside occasions; speed up developer instruments with better stability and functionality as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the subsequent era of Epic with enormous launch plans in direction of the tip of the yr.
“This is not our first time being right here, he continued. “Epic survived upheavals in 1990’s with the transfer from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; within the 2000’s constructing console video games with Gears of Warfare; and in 2012 transferring to on-line gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Every time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed management place.
“Market situations as we speak are probably the most excessive we have seen since these early days, with large upheaval within the {industry} accompanied by large alternative for the businesses that come out as winners on the opposite facet. That is what we’re aiming to do for our gamers, and we intention to convey different like-minded builders within the {industry} alongside on the journey to construct an more and more open and vibrant way forward for leisure collectively.”
On the subject of AI, Sweeney famous particularly that its rise in prominence inside sport improvement was not an element right here. “The layoffs aren’t associated to AI,” he famous. “To the extent it improves productiveness, we need to have as many superior builders creating nice content material and tech as we are able to.”
Concluding his message, Sweeney described the layoffs as “very painful”, and famous that impacted employees would obtain a minimum of 4 months of base pay and healthcare protection, as effectively accelerated inventory choices. Epic Video games final held a significant spherical of layoffs in 2023, when it made 830 employees redundant — round 16% of its workforce on the time. Following that, the corporate was believed to make use of just a little over 4,000 folks — suggesting that as we speak’s mass layoffs have impacted virtually 1 / 4 of the corporate.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social