Discord Is Making Another Big Round Of Job Cuts, Blames Rapid Growth

It is unclear if the tech bubble is slowly deflating or if it is just a sign of the broader economy, but layoffs are seemingly the thing to do at the top of 2024. We have seen this with Google across several business units as well as Amazon, specifically with Twitch. Now, popular gaming and community social media platform Discord is joining the list of companies running layoffs thanks to reported unchecked explosive growth over the past few years.

Discord will be cutting 17% of its staff, which will impact 170 people across differing departments at Discord, according to a letter from CEO Jason Citron seen by The Verge. The letter explains that from 2020, Discord has grown its workforce five times over what it once was. With this explosive growth likely bolstered by the pandemic and lockdowns driving people to online platforms, Discord “took on more projects and became less efficient” in its operations.


However, things seem to have slowed down as Discord needs to “sharpen [its] focus” and enhance agility in the organization. Subsequently, Discord is laying off these people to build a “strong and profitable business that delivers amazing products,” Citron states. For those being laid off, they can expect five months of salary plus a week for every year at the company, five months of continued benefits, three months of outplacement services, equity vesting of awards, and continued health coverage through the end of 2024.

At the end of the day, seeing this happen is curious because Discord is not the first nor the last in the line of layoffs, but the cause is unclear. We can assume that there has been somewhat of a downturn in the online entertainment sector due to the end of mass lockdowns and pandemic woes, but that cannot account for everything. Perhaps these companies are seeing something ahead that we have not yet, so stay tuned to HotHardware for updates on the ongoing tech layoffs.