The Gaming Industry Is Losing 44 Jobs a Day in 2026

On August 18, Insider Gaming dropped a statistic that sent a chill down the industry's spine: as of August, the global gaming industry in 2026 has confirmed roughly 10,618 layoffs across 126 companies, with 29 studios shut down outright. That works out to an average of 44 people losing their jobs every single day. The entirety of 2025 saw only about 7,000 layoffs — in just eight months, this year has already surpassed more than half of last year's total.

Twelve days later, at Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, TGS 2026 is set to open. Founded in 1996, the show turns 30 this year, and its theme is ambitious — “the longest five-day gaming feast in history”: from September 17 to 21, the event will stretch from four days to five for the first time, with nearly 300,000 visitors expected, up from 263,000 across four days last year. The lineup also set a record: as of July 8, 759 exhibitors and 3,946 booths had been confirmed, hailing from 51 countries and regions — 484 from Japan and 275 from overseas — with even Nintendo making a rare appearance in the business meeting area. China, meanwhile, came out in full force: Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo, Kuro Games, Hypergryph, Perfect World, Papergames, Seasun Games, Lilith Games, 37 Interactive Entertainment, and XD are all on the list.

On one side, layoffs numbering over ten thousand; on the other, the largest showing in history. The picture looks surreal no matter how you look at it, but the two are actually two faces of the same coin.

Let's start with the contraction. In early August, NetEase was reported to have called off its first wuxia single-player title, Jianxin Diaolong: the project began in 2022, was only announced in January 2025, completed its first round of offline testing on July 28, and by August 3 word had spread that the team was disbanded, with nearly a hundred staff reassigned internally. Producer Gong Changjun — who oversaw Chinese Paladin and Gujian back in the day — responded publicly, admitting that a buy-to-play single-player title faces “real difficulty reaching mass production and profitability.” Players blasted NetEase for a lack of sincerity, but from the company's perspective, killing a project that couldn't get off the ground in four years is about pulling bullets back to fire elsewhere. Microsoft was even harsher, slashing Xbox studios heavily — with even rumors it might consider shutting down its console business. PS6 pricing is a headache, and the Switch 2 is rumored to get another price hike. All three hardware giants are doing the math.

Now the expansion. Why are studios breaking down the doors to get into TGS? Because the domestic market is now a stock market, while overseas is where the growth is. In 2025, China's actual domestic game sales revenue reached 291.095 billion yuan, up 11.64% year-over-year — the pie is still growing, but profits are increasingly concentrated at the top. And a TGS ticket isn't cheap: a 3-meter-square standard booth starts at 440,000 yen, before you even count cross-border construction, flights, and hotels. The Chinese studios willing to pay that in a cold winter aren't burning money — they have to fight for the overseas market. Last year's TGS queue scenes are still vivid: NetEase's Ananta demo line stretched past three hours and was briefly paused, and Perfect World's Yihuan saw its first overseas demo line snake beyond the exhibit area. Japan is also the global “value ceiling” for mobile game spending — going to TGS isn't about exhibiting, it's about going after Japanese players' wallets.

Layoffs and exhibitions are ultimately two ends of the same strategy: cut what isn't profitable, and hammer what is. Once the industry shifted from a growth market to a stock market, the giants stopped spreading their chips thin and concentrated their ammunition on the few projects that could actually break out — those 10,618 eliminated positions are the price of that “concentrated firepower.”

But I also want to say something that might get me flamed: don't turn “industry winter” into a traffic-grabbing buzzword, and don't just fixate on the big studios' booths. If you really want to find a spark, go look at the indie area — TGS reserved a free “Selected Indie 80” exhibition zone for independent developers this year, plus the SOWN creative night on September 17. Plenty of the people laid off by the giants are hunkered down behind booths like these, waiting for a chance to turn things around. The gaming industry isn't dead — it's just no longer a rising tide that lifts everyone. AI toolchains, global publishing, long-term live ops — you have to know it all. Among the laid-off, those with real skill are being snapped back up by the big studios in the second half of the year. The ones who stay are the ones who can fight.

If you could only visit TGS for one day next year, which booth would you most want to see? Come chat in the Gghubs comments — and while you're at it, tell us: do you have friends in the gaming industry who've been laid off?