According to the Press Engine platform, the number of journalists covering video games worldwide has dropped by 25% over the past two years.
The service that publishers and developers use to distribute press releases and media keys reported that more than 600 journalists who regularly covered the games industry have been removed from its database in the last 12 months. Approximately the same number left the sector the previous year and did not return to media roles.
In Press Engine’s “first-tier” database — i.e., major gaming and news sites with audiences exceeding one million — the number of journalists has fallen by a quarter. Most of the layoffs occurred at specialist outlets such as IGN, Polygon and GameSpot.
When freelancers and contract contributors are included, more than 4,000 people have left the industry since October 2023. The primary causes cited are professional burnout, career changes, and the large-scale redundancies that began after the pandemic.
Press Engine co-founder Gareth Williams said gaming journalism has lost many talented writers due to a combination of factors: declining ad revenues, the COVID surge, and Google updates that have harmed sites’ visibility. He suggested that fan-focused publications and outlets relying on direct reader support may be the only viable way to preserve the field.
Gaming press veteran Alex Donaldson (RPG Site) believes the central problem is not only Google but also shifting audience habits, with readers turning to services like ChatGPT. He warns that cuts will continue for at least another year and urges support for independent outlets.
He added that some of the losses could have been avoided with better management and more realistic expectations from media owners.
“If readers do not support professional newsrooms, they will simply disappear,” Donaldson concluded.
Source: iXBT.games