In a shocking turn of events, Twitch is now the latest company to face mass redundancies. Following a very tough 2023 for job security in the video game space, 2024 has started equally tough, with Unity facing layoffs recently, and now around a third of Twitch employees losing their jobs too.
In a blog post by Twitch CEO Dan Clancy that came in the form of an internal email that was shared around to staff, it has been revealed that around 500 jobs have been cut at the livestreaming company, which equates to around a third of the total workforce.
As for why this is happening, the email notes: "Over the last year, we've been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run and throughout the year we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, it has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business."
The email from Clancy continues: "Last year we paid out over $1 billion to streamers. So while the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we're at today. As with many other companies in the tech space, we are now sizing our organization based upon the current scale of our business and conservative predictions of how we expect to grow in the future."
This decision to cut jobs doesn't seem to be just a Twitch-exclusive one, as Prime Video, another entertainment sector in the portfolio of Amazon, has also been met with major redundancies. As per Reuters, it's said that hundreds of jobs have been cut across the streamer and production company, and that this has also affected Amazon MGM Studios.
It's unspecified exactly how many jobs in this division have been lost, but VP of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, Mike Hopkins, has stated: "We've identified opportunities to reduce or discontinue investments in certain areas while increasing our investment and focus on content and product initiatives that deliver the most impact."
No doubt this recent trend means that we're in for an equally challenging year in regard to job security in the entertainment sector.