Epic Games Laying Off Over 1,000 Employees, Blames Drop In Fortnite Engagement

Epic Games, the company behind Unreal Engine and Fortnite, is laying off over 1,000 staff members as Fortnite’s popularity continues to decline.

On March 24, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed the massive layoff news via a blog post on the official Epic Games website. In the message, Sweeney laid the blame on Fortnite not having as many active players as before.

“Today we’re laying off over 1000 Epic employees,” said Sweeney in a message shared with employees before being posted online. “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. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles puts us in a more stable place.”

Sweeney also included a direct reference to AI and claimed today’s layoffs aren’t connected to the controversial technology that he has championed and defended online in the past.

“Since it’s a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren’t related to AI,” said the CEO. “To the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can.”

Also mentioned in the message to staff is Epic’s role in fighting tech giants like Google and Apple in court over in-app purchases and third-party app stores. While Epic has been able to carve out some victories from this now years-long crusade, it hasn’t been cheap or easy for the company, something Sweeney indirectly references, saying: “…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.”

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