Jacob Wolf is one of the most prominent esports journalists in the world. After becoming the youngest writer for ESPN in 2016, he solidified his reputation by uncovering shocking stories and winning the Journalist of the Year title at the Esports Awards Gala in 2018. In any discussion about the best esports journalists, Jacob Wolf’s name always comes up.
However, Wolf has decided to leave the esports industry in favor of more promising prospects. Monday marked his first day in his new role as a solutions engineer at the newsletter platform Beehiiv. As a result of recent mass layoffs in the gaming industry, Wolf is one of many industry workers who no longer see esports as a viable career path.
“I still believe that gaming as a whole has a broader future,” said Wolf. “But there are certain issues with esports that make it very difficult to achieve sustainable income – which means it’s hard to maintain a lasting career.”
Indeed, the past few months have been brutal for anyone looking to make a living in the gaming and esports industry. Mass layoffs resulted in the loss of nearly 6,000 gaming industry jobs in 2024 alone, and over 12,000 gaming-related jobs disappeared in the past calendar year.
For years, the gaming industry was seen as a passion-driven field, and studios often recruited new employees directly from their game fandoms. At studios like Riot Games and Activision Blizzard, laid-off employees increasingly found themselves facing the difficult task of separating their passion for games from the disappointment and resentment of losing their source of livelihood.
“We really try to believe in it – there are so many enthusiasts working there because it’s not easy to achieve,” said a laid-off Riot Games employee who spoke with Digiday on the condition of anonymity. “So when that’s taken away from you, it’s like the whole rug has been pulled out from under you.”
Some of the laid-off gaming industry workers have been disheartened by how gaming companies presented their layoffs as a necessary evil. Dylan Jadeja, the CEO of Riot Games, wrote that this move was a “necessity” to “sustain long-term strategies for players,” while an internal memo at Microsoft blamed Activision Blizzard’s layoffs on fallout from the merger between the two companies last year. Gaming industry employees who were laid off told Digiday that their employers’ focus on financial results while thousands lost their jobs left a bitter taste in their mouths.
“Looking at it from our standpoint, I think they went the wrong way,” said a former Riot Games employee. “It’s a difficult situation, but it feels wrong how they presented it to us.”
The wave of layoffs in the gaming and esports industry in January was the result of multiple factors coming together. Past statements by game developers about addressing excessive staffing were somewhat true; the fact is that spending and engagement around games declined in 2023 after the COVID-induced successes of 2021 and 2022. The market slowed down, and gaming companies are now responding to that. However, especially in the esports industry, layoffs are also a result of gaming companies’ struggles with business models such as local franchise teams or multimedia streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
“The esports business model got ahead of itself,” said Jason Chung, the director of esports and gaming at New York University. “And costs were acceptable when credit was easy – when investors were lining up. But as soon as there’s any correction, people will question the models, and that’s happening now.”
Laid-off gaming industry workers also told Digiday that they are disappointed by the lack of unified response from their former colleagues who still have jobs. Despite widespread online support for laid-off gaming industry workers, there have been no major strikes or protests in gaming studios that made cuts last month. This is in stark contrast to reactions in the traditional media industry, where hundreds of Los Angeles Times and Condé Nast employees took to the streets after layoffs were announced at those companies last month.
“I think it mainly comes down to the fact that the gaming industry, by and large, is not professionally organized. It’s unfortunate because a lot of people in the gaming industry are actively against unionization, and it’s not about the workers, it’s about the leadership – people at the top of the hierarchy,” said another former gaming industry employee, who requested anonymity after losing their job in the recent wave of layoffs. “Unions can protect against that, and it really saddens me that they weren’t there as a source of support for me and the other 12,000 people who lost their jobs and had their lives changed for no good reason.”
The result of all this is that the gaming industry, once a dream for many, is no longer seen as a viable career path for those who want to sustain themselves beyond their passion. Especially the esports industry has significantly contracted, with Activision Blizzard’s layoffs in January accounting for 83% of the esports division’s employment.
The crux of the problem is that esports never truly became a profitable industry independent of the wider gaming world. Unlike traditional sports, which generate billions of dollars in revenue through broadcast deals, ticket sales, and brand advertising, the main value of esports lies not in earning money but in serving as a marketing channel for the products of game developers.
This is not to say that there are no longer companies in the esports space making genuine efforts to build it in a more sustainable manner, to varying degrees of success. Competitive gaming still has the potential to enter mainstream culture, as leading esports companies like Riot Games envision, and there are still many active teams and esports leagues building the future.
But as the industry consolidates in 2024, many laid-off esports employees face uncertain futures and the realization that the once-idealized gaming industry may not provide the stability they had hoped for.
The source of the article is from the blog trebujena.net