Twitch confirms layoffs, over 500 employees getting axed

Twitch, one of the biggest gaming affiliates on the planet, has announced that it will be firing over 500 people. Layoffs like this are quickly becoming commonplace and the fact that they’re happening this early in 2024 is very unfortunate.

As shared on the company’s official blog post, the head at Twitch thanked these employees for their hard work and is apologetic for their firing. Beyond thanking these ex-employees, they also gave various instructions on what to do, depending on your country and role.

As to why these layoffs are happening, Twitch said that this is so they can “rightsize” their company, whatever that means. The letter also mentions paying over $1 billion to streamers, so it looks like the company needs to keep paying these streamers and can’t afford to pay some of these employees. We’d question why Twitch has to pay these streamers so much, but with names like Pokimane still gathering tons of viewers, they kind of have to.

“Last year we paid out over $1 billion to streamers,” said the statement. “So while the Twitch business remains strong, for some time now the organization has been sized based upon where we optimistically expect our business to be in 3 or more years, not where we’re at today.”

Interestingly, the letter acknowledges how these layoffs were leaked not too long ago, and an apology was made for that as well. This open letter apologizes for the stress and anxiety that caused, even though this apology didn’t help in the end. Still, at the end of the day, the leaks were correct and Twitch is firing people for no real reason at all.

“I also want to acknowledge how disappointed I was yesterday that this information leaked. I am sorry for all of the anxiety that it caused over the last several hours,” the statement read. “Our hope was that you all would hear from us this morning and very quickly understand how this impacted your role and we were unfortunately not able to accelerate the timeline, which I know is very frustrating.”

Read More: Twitch Expands Username Rules, Banning Drug References

Fans will be able to use Twitch, depending on their preferred device.