Riot Games Lays Off 530 Employees, About 11% of its Workforce 

Riot Games has confirmed to lay off 530 employees, or about 11% of its global workforce, as well as axing its third-party publishing label.

In the statement, Riot Games, the company behind some of the world’s most-played online titles such as League of Legends and Valorant, said the decision to cut staff “isn’t to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it’s a necessity.”

According to the company, the biggest impact will be made on teams outside of the core development.

Among the changes include the closure of Riot Forge, the company’s third-party publishing label that works with other studios on smaller-scale games such as Hextech Mayhem, The Mageseeker, and Ruined King.

The teams working on Legends of Runeterra will also be downsized to “move the game toward sustainability”.

As for the other titles, Riot Games said that they will be doubling down on their commitment to their core live games which include League of Legends, Valorant, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift, saying that they will be “more ambitious than ever”.

The Decision 

Dylan Jadeja, CEO of Riot Games, further explained the layoffs in a letter to staff shared publicly, noting that since 2019, the company has made many big bets and spread efforts across more and more projects, ultimately doubling the size of the studio over the past few years.

“Today, we’re a company without a sharp enough focus, and simply put, we have too many things underway.”

“Some of the significant investments we’ve made aren’t paying off the way we expected them to.”

“Our costs have grown to the point where they’re unsustainable, and we’ve left ourselves with no room for experimentation or failure – which is vital to a creative company like ours. All of this puts the core of our business at risk.”

Jadeja proceeds to explain the layoffs rollout plan, stating that it may take several weeks to finalize depending on local laws and regulations around the world.

Six months of salary minimum will be offered to all laid-off employees, as well as cash bonuses and a number of benefits and supports.

The news of this Riot Games layoff continues the string of disheartening job losses in the industry, with reportedly more than 10,000 people being laid off last year.

This news also came only a few days after we learned that Lords of the Fallen publisher CI Games has laid off 10% of its workforce and Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive confirmed layoffs in the company.

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