Fortnite publisher said Tuesday it is laying off 1,000 employees to save money as it grapples with industry-wide and company-specific challenges.
The Cary, North Carolina-based video game publisher said in a that the job cuts are not related to artificial intelligence. Rather, they stem from industry-wide challenges such as slower growth, weaker spending and tougher cost economics. Games like Fortnite are also competing for people鈥檚 attention against social media and other forms of online entertainment.
In addition, Epic said it’s had its own company-specific hurdles, for example, it is 鈥渙nly in the early stages of returning to mobile鈥� after with Apple and Google over app store payments.
鈥淭his isn鈥檛 our first time being here. Epic survived upheavals in 1990s with the move from 2D to 3D with Unreal 1; in the 2000s building console games with Gears of War; and in 2012 moving to online gaming with Paragon and Fortnite,鈥� CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said in the memo.
鈥淢arket conditions today are the most extreme we鈥檝e 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,鈥� he added.
Epic said it has 4,000 employees after Tuesday’s layoffs, which amount to about 20% of the company’s workforce.
The company’s last large-scale layoffs were in 2023, when it cut 830 jobs. This amounted to about 16% of Epic’s workforce at the time.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
