Fortnite developer Epic Games has announced it is laying off 1,000 staff, due to a “downturn in engagement” in its evergreen battle royale.
In a message to staff shared publicly this morning, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney said the company was “spending significantly more than we’re making”, meaning that it now needed to make “major cuts to keep the company funded.”
The news comes just a week after the launch of Fortnite’s highly-anticipated new battle royale season, and two weeks after the company controversially raised the price of the game’s lucrative V-Bucks in-game currency, prompting a huge backlash from players.
“Today we’re laying off over 1,000 Epic employees,” Sweeney told Epic Games employees. “I’m sorry we’re here again. The downturn in Fortnite engagement that started in 2025 means we’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded.” Today’s layoffs are being accompanied by “over $500 million of identified cost savings” in contracting and marketing, he continued, while the hiring of some roles will cease.
“Some of the challenges we’re facing are industry-wide challenges,” Sweeney wrote, blaming “slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economics.” Discussing that last point in more detail, Sweeney said that current consoles were selling less than last generation, and noted that games were increasingly competing for time against other forms of entertainment.
“And some of our challenges are unique to Epic,” he continued. “Despite Fortnite remaining one of the most successful games in the world, we’ve had challenges delivering consistent Fortnite magic with every season; we’re only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world’s billions of smartphones; and in being the industry’s vanguard we have taken a lot of bullets in a battle which is only in the early days of paying off for ourselves and all developers.”
Sweeney went on to specifically highlight the growing role of AI in game development — and in tech industry layoffs — and say that it was not a factor here. “The layoffs aren’t related to AI,” he noted. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”
Layoffs include high profile and long-standing Fortnite team members, including principal engineer Evan Kinney, who posted his reaction on social media after years working on the game and its popular live events.
i have done so much for this company and our games
so many late nights
so many weekends
so many live events, and competitive events, and new features, and new seasonssolid performance reviews every time
with multiple people mentioning how critical i am and what an impact i…— Evanosaurus “Unrawrl Engine 5.7” Rex (@evankinney) March 24, 2026
“What we now need to do is clear,” Sweeney continued in his message to staff, telling them they needed to “build awesome Fortnite experiences with fresh seasonal content, gameplay, story, and live events; accelerate developer tools with greater stability and capability as we evolve from Unreal Engine 5 and UEFN to Unreal Engine 6. And we’ll be kicking off the next generation of Epic with huge launch plans towards the end of the year.
“This isn’t our first time being here, he continued. “Epic survived upheavals in 1990’s with the move from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; in the 2000’s building console games with Gears of War; and in 2012 moving to online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite. Each time, we rebuilt our foundations and earned a renewed leadership position.
“Market conditions today are the most extreme we’ve seen since those early days, with massive upheaval in the industry accompanied by massive opportunity for the companies that come out as winners on the other side. That’s what we’re aiming to do for our players, and we aim to bring other like-minded developers in the industry along on the journey to build an increasingly open and vibrant future of entertainment together.”
At Epic, we pride ourselves in only hiring the industry’s best, so it is very painful to part with so many talented people. The folks impacted by the layoffs will receive a severance package that includes at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure. We’re also extending Epic-paid healthcare coverage.
For example, in the U.S., they’ll receive paid coverage for 6 months. We’ll also accelerate their stock options vesting through January 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.
We’ll have a company meeting Thursday to talk about the roadmap in more detail.
More to follow…
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
