2024 is already halfway to matching 2023’s layoff numbers | Kaser Focus

Microsoft announced this week that it’s laying off 1,900 people as part of its “success” plan following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. It appears that the layoffs affect staff across almost every department of Microsoft’s gaming division. This would be bad enough news, but Microsoft is not the first games company that’s laid off a large number of employees in 2024. It’s not even the only one that’s laid off almost 2,000. In fact, according to videogamelayoffs.com, we’ve had over 5,000 layoffs despite only being 26 days into the new year.

Just to put that into perspective, a conservative estimate of 2023’s layoffs puts the overall number at 10,500 people. But that’s across the entire year. While 2023’s layoffs were ruinous and depressing, at least they were spread out over several months (a small reprieve, if one can call it that). In less than a month, we’ve had half as many layoffs in 2024 as we had (again, conservatively estimated) in all of 2023.