Riot Games Lays Off 11% Of Workforce, Says It's Not About Appeasing Shareholders

2024 continues to be a turbulent year for the people working in the games industry as Riot Games has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 11%, or 530 employees. The company seems to be well aware of the negative reactions the industry wide layoffs are getting, and attempted to reduce that by saying, “this isn’t to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it’s a necessity.”

According to the company, the reason for the layoffs is that it has gotten spread too thin working on several different projects, with its headcount doubling in recent years. It will instead focus on what’s making the most money for the company, which are titles that Riot labels as “core live games” such as Valorant and League of Legends.

The teams that will be most impacted by these moves work on Legends of Runeterra and Riot Forge. Legends of Runeterra was unable to get enough traction to make money, and will now be focusing on its Path of Champions game mode in attempt to create something sustainable. Riot Forge, where Riot Games worked with independent game developers to create new experiences in Runeterra, is now coming to an end with the release of Bandle Tale: A League of Legends Story.


Employees who are impacted by these moves will be getting some assistance. They will be provided with at least six month of severance pay, a cash bonus based on their 2023 annual performance bonus, and the ability to request a laptop from the Riot Games IT department should they need it. This is definitely one of the more generous packages seen during this recent wave of layoffs in the tech industry.

Unfortunately, this probably won’t be the last of the layoffs to hit the games industry. If a company like Riot Games, which has several popular titles, is making these kinds of cuts then it’s only a matter of time before other companies make similar decisions.