Tencent-owned Riot Games plans to lay off 530 employees globally, or ~11% of its staff, saying Riot had “more than doubled in headcount” over the past few years

The cuts, which amount to about 11% of staff, were announced Monday in a blog post and letter to employees.

Bloomberg 2024-01-23 Cecilia D'Anastasio

Context & Ripple Effects

Riot’s reduction follows a broader retrenchment among gaming and streaming employers. Epic Games had already announced a 900-person workforce reduction, while Twitch said its organization had become oversized before its own cuts.

The game sector has also seen ByteDance scale back its gaming ambitions and cancel most unreleased titles. Riot’s move matters because it applies the same headcount-reset logic at a Tencent-owned studio whose workforce had expanded rapidly.

First-order effects

About 530 Riot employees globally will lose their jobs, reducing the company’s workforce by roughly 11%.
Riot will operate with a smaller organization after acknowledging that its headcount had more than doubled over recent years, putting immediate pressure on teams and managers to consolidate work.

Second-order effects

The cuts reinforce a difficult hiring environment for game-development talent as Epic, Twitch, and Riot all reduce staff, expanding the pool of experienced workers seeking roles.
Other publishers and platform operators face added pressure to justify staffing and project portfolios against a leaner operating model, particularly after ByteDance’s withdrawal from much of its unreleased games pipeline.

Third-order effects

If similar reductions persist, game companies may shift from expansion-led studio building toward tighter portfolio control and smaller teams focused on established products.
The pattern points to a more concentrated industry in which sustained live-service operations and clear project economics carry greater weight than headcount growth; the pace and depth of that shift remain uncertain.

The trend: Gaming and streaming companies are resetting workforces after rapid expansion, prioritizing operating discipline and narrower project portfolios.

Discussion

GamingOnLinux Liam Dawe on x
Riot Games cutting 11% of staff (about 530 people)
Gameranx Ryan Parreno on x
Riot Games To Lay Off 11 % of Workforce, Or 530 Employees
Pure Xbox Liam Doolan on x
League Of Legends Developer Riot Games Lays Off 11% Of Its Workforce
@jasonschreier Jason Schreier on x
Riot's severance package for laid-off employees is one of the best I've ever seen. But Riot also had a strict return-to-office policy, which means that 500+ people may now have to uproot their lives for new jobs — one of the main reasons people leave the video game industry
@echochlo Chloe Naylor on x
it's always “this was a last resort we didn't know what else to do 🥺” and never “so i, as ceo, took a paycut so OVER 500 PEOPLE didn't have to lose their livelihoods”
@imranzomg Imran Khan on x
Riot Forge was the most interesting thing they had going there. Shame that it's ending, but not nearly as big a shame as 530 jobs just going poof.
@vahn16 Nathan Grayson on x
riot is laying off 530 employees, or 11 percent of its workforce. riot forge, which facilitated the development of new games in the league of legends universe from non-riot studios, is being shut down
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
Riot Games is laying off 530 employees, 11% of the company. We're not even a month into 2024 and more than 3,000 people in the video game industry have lost their jobs. This comes after more than 6,500 were impacted by layoffs in the video game industry in 2023 😔
@cecianasta Cecilia D'Anastasio on x
Riot is laying off 530 people (11% of staff) and reducing the size of its Legends of Runeterra team. The company is offering a minimum 6 months' salary, cash bonus, career support and personal computer to those impacted: https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@draggles Ben Forbes on x
don't really have any hot takes today gamers. please be kind to the folks who worked on things you played/watched/gave feedback on/lurked/shared that were just excited to do more
@lumbogg @lumbogg on x
This is genuinely one of the nicest severance packages I've ever seen, layoffs are unfortunate but this is a wonderful gesture by riot in my opinion [image]
@evankinney @evankinney on x
fun fact: we should unionize. like, now.
@riotgames @riotgames on x
Out of respect for Rioters and teams processing the news, you might not hear as much from our social accounts in the coming days. You can still expect patch notes and critical game updates on appropriate channels.
@marioprime Giovanni Colantonio on x
Unfathomably horrible news that sets a dark tone for the year. Riot Forge simply ceasing to exist after putting out consistently well received games is impossible to comprehend. You can just do your job really well and get laid off anyways.
@riotgames @riotgames on x
Minutes ago, we shared an important update with Rioters about the future of Riot Games. Here's what these changes mean for our games and what players can expect from us going forward: https://www.riotgames.com/... [image]
@besswisty Bess on x
Terrible News from Riot: - They are firing around 11% of Rioters - RIOT FORGE IS DEAD. No more games from it. - LoR will focus on PvE but it's not a big focus from them - The big focus from Riot will be League, VALORANT, Wild Rift and TFT

Chronicles