Cary-based Epic Games cuts 20% of employees after ‘Fortnite’ slump

The North-Carolina based company behind “Fortnite” and the Unreal Engine, Epic Games, is cutting more than 1,000 jobs across the company amidst a decline in user engagement.

In a March 24 letter to Epic employees, founder and CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, said that the cuts are due to a “downturn in Fortnite engagement.”

“We’re spending significantly more than we’re making, and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded,” Sweeney wrote.

“Some of the challenges we’re facing are industry-wide challenges: slower growth, weaker spending, and tougher cost economies,” Sweeney said in the letter. “Current consoles selling less than last generation’s; and games competing for time against other increasingly engaging forms of entertainment.”

According to the letter, the employee layoff is accompanied by over $500 million cost cuts in contracting, marketing, and closing some open roles in order to get the company in a more stable place.

In the letter, Sweeney said that the layoffs are not related to AI. He said that Epic wants to have “as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as they can.”

Sweeney said that the people effected by the layoffs will receive a severance package of at least four months of base pay and health care coverage, with more depending on tenure.

Epic Games was founded in 1991 by Sweeney and moved its headquarters to Cary, North Carolina, in 1999. The company has dozens of offices worldwide and is known for creating the game, “Fortnite,” which has generated over $20 billion in total gross revenue since its 2017 release, according to NGS Solutions.

The last major layoff within Epic Games was in September 2023, eliminating around 830 jobs.

Before the March 2026 layoff, Epic had around 5,000 employees. The 1,000-person layoff was around 20% of the total company.

“Cary-based Epic Games cuts 20% of employees after ‘Fortnite’ slump” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.