TIGA: UK games dev sector faces “most severe downturn on record”

The UK games development sector is experiencing the “most severe downturn on record,” with its employment rate falling 4.5% year-on-year.

According to the TIGA Making Games in the UK report, between May 2024 and September 2025, 491 companies cut 3,655 full-time roles. In contrast, 513 growing studios added 2,751 jobs.

The total workforce fell from 28,516 to 27,347 during the same period, even as the freelance workforce grew to over 4,245 contractors.

There are currently 2,110 game studios in the UK, with the last peak being 2,175 in 2023.

206 companies were shuttered or left the games industry, representing 10.2% of all companies (both running and dissolved during the research period).

Studios with more than 15 staff were most affected, resulting in almost 1,800 redundancies. Micro and small studios continued to grow. Companies with one to four employees grew by 3.2%, while those with five to 15 employees increased by 9.2%.

Employment at console-focused studios fell by 2.1%, less than mobile (12.9%) and PC (13.2%).

The formation of new studios continued to struggle, falling by over 30% for the third consecutive year. The number dropped from 281 start-ups to 137 during the research period, a 15-year low.

TIGA has attributed the employment decline, layoffs, and slow studio growth to “weak global sales, poor early-stage financing, and post-pandemic restructuring.”

The trade body has urged the government to raise the Video Games Expenditure Credit by introducing a 53% rate on 80% of costs for projects under £23.5 million, aiming to boost the sector’s GVA.

This could boost the GVA by £482 million and create nearly 7,000 jobs (including 896 development roles).

It also suggested boosting the UK Games Talent and Finance CIC to “enable more studios to start-up, scale-up, and grow.”

“The UK video games industry is the largest in Europe, has world-class talent, studios and universities, and previous TIGA research with the University of Portsmouth shows that the sector generates £12 billion in GVA,” said TIGA CEO Richard Wilson.

“However, after 14 years of uninterrupted growth, we are now seeing a decline of unprecedented scale and speed. Without decisive policy intervention, the UK risks losing thousands of highly skilled jobs and ceding ground to better-supported international competitors.”

Wilson concluded: “Enhancing the VGEC could create thousands of development jobs, improve studios’ financial strengths, enable the development of new IP and put the sector back on the path of growth.”