Amir Satvat: Over 50% of layoffs in the games industry happened in California
North America is the region suffered the most from the layoffs; majority of people in the end are landing on jobs outside of the gaming industry.
Amir is the founder of Amir Satvat’s Games Community, a group that helps game industry workers find jobs. He has helped more than 4,000 people land new roles.
Over 70%, and in some years more than 75%, of all layoffs happened in North America.
Previously, North America accounted for up to 40% of new job openings. Now that number has dropped to 25%. Overall, the total number of employees in the games industry has fallen back to pre-COVID levels.
At the same time, more than 50% of international layoffs happened in California.
❗️Amir does not specify the exact time frame for this data.
Amir began collecting job market data for the games industry in mid-2022. Back then, remote roles made up 25–30% of open positions. Now that share has dropped to 10–13%.
Amir also shared concerning numbers about the job market. If you have less than 3 years of experience in the games industry, your chances of getting hired are only 5–7%. For others, that number rises to 15%. For “industry veterans,” chances go up to 30–35%. But if you’re over 50, the chance drops dramatically again to 5–7%.
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Programmers have the easiest time finding jobs. For game designers, it’s 9 times harder. For narrative designers and writers, it’s 22 times harder compared to programmers.
85% of people looking for jobs in games end up being employed outside the games industry.
Amir does not consider AI an existential threat to jobs. According to his observations, the share of job openings that mention AI (such as AI artist or AI engineer) has grown only slightly over the past few years – to about 3–6% of total listings.