--- title: The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing... description: At Gamescom Dev's opening keynote, Amir Satvat (formerly of Tencent, now general partner at 1Up Ventures and founder of ASGC) presented data on the games... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing games industry reset | daily.dev og:description: At Gamescom Dev's opening keynote, Amir Satvat (formerly of Tencent, now general partner at 1Up Ventures and founder of ASGC) presented data on the games... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zom6CrkaP.png og:image:alt: The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing games industry reset og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing games industry reset **[GamesIndustry.biz](https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry)** · 14 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary At Gamescom Dev's opening keynote, Amir Satvat (formerly of Tencent, now general partner at 1Up Ventures and founder of ASGC) presented data on the games industry's ongoing 'reset.' Layoffs in 2026 are now projected at 14,666, close to the 2024 peak, even though total industry employment has barely grown. The core driver is a geographic shift of jobs away from North America (especially California) toward APAC, particularly China, alongside revenue concentrating in a small number of top titles. Entry-level hiring has collapsed despite a boom in game-design college graduates, seniority requirements have crept up, and networking now dominates hiring outcomes. Satvat also detailed structural shifts: a decline in permanent AAA roles in favor of external development/contracting, a funding drought for game startups, and growth areas like UGC platforms, smaller AA/indie titles, and emerging regions. He calls for better treatment of game workers, more flexible pricing, community-first development, and a shift toward smaller, disciplined teams as the healthiest path forward. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many games industry layoffs are expected in 2026? Around 14,666 layoffs are now projected across the games industry for 2026, close to the 2024 peak of 15,631 and well above the roughly 7,500 originally forecast. As of August 11, 2026, about 10,140 layoffs had already been announced that year, more than the entirety of 2025's roughly 9,200. _Anyone tracking games industry stability can follow layoff trends and hiring shifts on daily.dev._ ### Why are game companies still laying off workers even though industry revenue keeps growing? Revenue growth is increasingly concentrated in a shrinking number of top titles, with 50-60% of revenue going to just the top 20 games and only 79 PC titles accounting for 80% of play time. Mobile revenue now depends more on monetizing existing players than acquiring new ones, so overall growth masks weak performance for most studios. _Developers weighing where to focus effort can track industry revenue concentration trends on daily.dev._ ### How has the balance between AAA and external development jobs in games changed since 2022? AAA roles have shrunk from about half of all game industry jobs in 2022 to below one-third now, while external development and contracting roles have grown to roughly 10-15% of open positions. Studios that once hid their reliance on contractors and smaller teams now discuss it openly as a structural shift in how games get made. _Job seekers navigating the shift toward contracting can follow evolving hiring patterns on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Remote working down, mid-level contraction, and Eastern migration: the signals we're seeing in games job data](https://daily.dev/posts/remote-working-down-mid-level-contraction-and-eastern-migration-the-signals-we-re-seeing-in-games-ieia7z7wy) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [New data suggests layoffs will affect 14,259 people by the end of 2026, up 78% from first forecast of the year](https://daily.dev/posts/new-data-suggests-layoffs-will-affect-14-259-people-by-the-end-of-2026-up-78-from-first-forecast-o-e5vjelkkh) · GamesIndustry.biz · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How are devs responding to industry calamity?](https://daily.dev/posts/how-are-devs-responding-to-industry-calamity--duefbt5qs) · Game Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#game-development](https://daily.dev/tags/game-development) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing games industry reset","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap"},"datePublished":"2026-09-01T16:21:19.343Z","dateModified":"2026-09-01T16:41:53.630Z","description":"At Gamescom Dev's opening keynote, Amir Satvat (formerly of Tencent, now general partner at 1Up Ventures and founder of ASGC) presented data on the games...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2b3cf151749f00888731319bd100ccd2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2b3cf151749f00888731319bd100ccd2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"GamesIndustry.biz","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"GamesIndustry.biz","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/be1a78592d5340248e5204f8007b82be","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"career,game-development","timeRequired":"PT14M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GamesIndustry.biz","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/gamesindustry"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Big Picture: What you need to know about the ongoing games industry reset"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-big-picture-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ongoing-games-industry-reset-zom6crkap#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many games industry layoffs are expected in 2026?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Around 14,666 layoffs are now projected across the games industry for 2026, close to the 2024 peak of 15,631 and well above the roughly 7,500 originally forecast. 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