GDC Survey Finds 34% of Game Professionals Laid Off in Past Two Years

GDC Festival of Gaming announced the release of its State of the Game Industry: november 2026 report on 12. november 2026, drawing on responses from more than 2,600 professionals. The survey found that 34% had been laid off during the previous 24 months, rising to 39% among respondents living in the United States.

The comparable global figure was 28% in GDC’s preceding 2026 report, which drew on more than 2,300 professionals, while the US figure was 33%. GDC said its measured layoff rate has increased in each of the three years it has tracked the issue. It also found a faster rise than other models and suggested that people most affected by layoffs may be participating at higher rates, leaving the survey more weighted toward their experiences than aggregate employment data.

Unemployment and Job Searches After Layoffs

Approximately 900 laid-off game workers were included in the current response pool, giving GDC a closer view of their experiences. Of that group, 54% remained unemployed, with the US share at 59%. Additionally, 27% had submitted at least 100 job applications, extending the report’s focus beyond job losses to the difficulty of securing another role.

AAA studios provided another measure of recent disruption, with 68% of their workers affected by layoffs in the previous 12 months. The earlier survey documented a divide by studio type: two-thirds of AAA respondents said their companies had conducted layoffs, compared with one-third at independent studios. Across that survey, half said their current or most recent employer had conducted layoffs during the previous 12 months.

The employment pipeline was already a concern in the preceding survey, when 74% of surveyed students said they were worried about their future job prospects. Students identified a shortage of entry-level jobs, competition from experienced laid-off workers and AI-led displacement as reasons.

Long Hours and Mental Health Pressures

Working-time pressures extended beyond development roles. Among game workers in fields such as marketing, business, training and research, 57% averaged more than 40 hours a week, compared with 44% of developers. Individual weeks showed still broader exposure to long hours: 86% of developers and 87% of game workers had worked more than 40 hours in a single week at least once in 2026.

Mandatory overtime, or crunch, was reported by 8% of respondents. Within that group, 69% received no compensation for the overtime, while 63% believed it could have been avoided.

GDC also reported that 65% of respondents said their job had harmed their mental health during the previous 12 months. At the same time, 86% said working in games gave them more fulfillment than they would find in another industry. Support for unionization among US-based respondents stood at 80%, compared with 82% in the preceding survey.

The survey’s central tension is that fulfillment from making games coexists with layoffs, prolonged job searches and work that many respondents say has harmed their mental health.