Riot confirms further layoffs with over 30 staff affected

League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced that it has reduced its workforce by a further 32 employees.

The cuts largely come from the League of Legends team, which has seen 27 members of staff lose their jobs. Five further roles have been cut in publishing.

In a statement to Eurogamer, Riot said: “Rioters who were laid off will have the ability to use our internal job board to apply for any open roles across the company.”

This is the second round of cuts the developer has faced this year. In January, around 530 roles were eliminated at the developer, amounting to almost 11% of the total workforce. 

In a statement at the time, Riot said: “For most of our history, we’ve managed to avoid days like this, but this decision is critical for the future of Riot.

“This isn’t to appease shareholders or to hit a quarterly earnings number—it’s a necessity.”

Riot continues to work on updates for League of Legends, and is also developing a fighting game, 2XKO.

Game developer Farhan Noor, who has been tracking job cuts on videogameslayoffs.com, estimates that around 13,000 games industry employees have been laid off so far this year – up from a total of 10,500 in 2023.

On Tuesday it was claimed that Bandai Namco is reportedly reducing its workforce and has cancelled multiple projects. 

Last week, Rime developer Tequila Works confirmed that it was letting go of multiple staff and canceling projects.