Riot Games lays off 11% of its workforce

League of Legends developer Riot Games has confirmed the layoffs of 530 employees and the closure of its third-party publishing arm.

The details:

• Riot announced the significant changes in a statement posted on its website, claiming that the decision to lay off approximately 11% of its global workforce was made "not to appease shareholders" but rather out of "necessity" after doubling its headcount in recent years. This increase in size has since resulted in unsustainable costs and no margin for error.

• The company states that the layoffs will allow it to focus on "fewer, high-impact projects to move us toward a more sustainable future." This includes creating new content and updates for League of Legends, VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, and Wild Rift. The team and plans for the card game Legends of Runeterra will be reduced due to "financial challenges" following its 2020 release.

• Riot Forge, the developer's third-party publishing arm, will also close following the release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story next month. Riot established the division as a "experiment" to see what smaller developers could create using the LoL setting as a foundation, which resulted in a number of popular releases, including Ruined King and Song of Nunu.

Other recent layoffs in 2024:

• Discord has laid off 17% of its workforce after also admitting to having increased its headcount too quickly in recent years.

• Unity began 2024 by confirming plans to lay off 25% of its current workforce in a company-wide restructuring by March.

• Behaviour Interactive, the studio behind Dead by Daylight, underwent a wave of layoffs this month. The developer has now commented on the situation, stating that it affected less than 3% of its workforce.