Twitch to reportedly lay off 500 staff as soon as today
2023 was a sad year to watch the gaming industry do what the gaming industry does - punishing staff members for the mistakes of CEOs just like any other business. It's easy to lose sight of this due to the hobbyist nature of video games, but real jobs are on the line, and failures of poor decisions are trickling down from above.
Sadly, one of the biggest cheerleaders of the industry is falling to these practices in the first major sweeping staff purge of the year. After previously being hit by mass layoffs, Twitch is once again tipped to axe jobs in a major cull.
Twitch reportedly laying off over 500 staff today
Click to enlargeA scathing Bloomberg report indicates a wave of layoffs could be coming to Twitch as early as today (Janaury 10), potentially affecting over 500 members of staff. This news comes after the company laid off 400 staff members in March last year. The staff members expected to be lost in the latest wave makes up 35% of Twitch's workforce.
Bloomberg has suggested that the layoffs could be announced imminently. The streaming platform is no stranger to these sorts of layoffs, as being owned by Amazon puts it next to the likes of Amazon Games, a company that also suffered 180 job losses only months ago.
It seems that the wheels have been falling off the Twitch wagon since the company's CEO Emmett Shear resigned back in March 2023. The last year has clearly been tough on the company, with Kick rising from the shadows and nabbing some of its biggest names in lucrative streaming deals.
Twitch will be down to half of its workforce
Click to enlargeThough Twitch was once a champion in the streaming space, it seems that it's falling faster than ever. If going through as Bloomberg claims, this round of layoffs will bring the company's staff numbers down to half what they were this time last year.
After the decimation of gaming studios in 2023, GGRecon is sending love to those who are losing their livelihoods to yet another round of layoffs. Twitch recently pulled out of South Korea after operating at a loss, while this next move suggests that Twitch's fall from grace will be more dramatic and catastrophic than we first thought.
