Epic Games lays off more than 1,000, as Fortnite's popularity slows
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Epic Games, the Cary-based video game developer, is laying off 1,000 employees amid a slowdown in engagement in Fortnite, its most popular game.
Why it matters: After Fortnite was released in 2017, Epic Games rode the game's popularity and the success of its Unreal Engine visualization tool to become one of the most valuable privately held companies in the country, and was at one point valued at more than $30 billion.
- It hired thousands of people and ambitiously bought the former Cary Towne Center mall for a future headquarters that has yet to materialize.
Driving the news: Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney announced the layoffs in a statement on Tuesday, adding the company was seeking $500 million in savings.
- The company has not yet responded to a request for comment, and how the layoffs affected Triangle-based employees was not immediately known.
What they're saying: "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," Sweeney said in the message to employees.
Flashback: This is the second wave of large layoffs that Epic has made in recent years.
- In 2023, the company laid off nearly 900 workers, while also citing a slowdown in Fortnite's popularity.
Between the lines: Along with a decline in engagement on Fortnite, the concept of the metaverse — a completely virtual world that Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney went all in on — has not been a runaway financial success.
- Sweeney pitched Fortnite as an online gathering place where people could play, hang out, and shop.
- Meta, the name Facebook pivoted to as part of its investment into the metaverse, just laid off 10% of employees in its metaverse division.
The big picture: The video game industry, in particular, has seen large-scale layoffs for the past few years.
- One report estimates that a third of all video game industry workers were laid off in the past two years.
- Sweeney said the industry is facing weaker spending from consumers and more competition from other forms of entertainment. But he also noted that many of Epic's challenges are unique to itself.
What we're watching: Despite Fortnite's success, Epic Games has faced various challenges over the years, Sweeney said.
- "We're only in the early stages of returning to mobile and optimizing Fortnite for the world's billions of smartphones; 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," he added.
- That is a reference to Sweeney's years-long antitrust crusade against the Apple and Google Play app stores, which led to Fortnite being removed from smartphones for years.