Twitch have announced more than 400 layoffs in the company.
Amazon have laid off more than 400 of its staff at Twitch in the latest round of cutbacks in gaming. In total, about 9,000 jobs will be cut throughout the company. Variety is one of many outlets that reported the massive layoffs on part of Amazon earlier today.
This is the second round of layoffs at the company this year. The total number of employees left without jobs at about the 27,000 mark. The first set was in January with an initial 18,000 being let go. Coming off the heels of the second worst banking crash in modern American history via Silicon Valley Bank, Amazon is one of many major companies that appear to be cutting costs at a clip.
New Twitch CEO Dan Clancy announced the layoffs
The announcement comes just days after Dan Clancy took over as CEO at Twitch. Emmett Shear left the company on Mar. 16, after 16 and a half years at the company.
Shear was head of the company throughout its infancy. Twitch was originally Justin.tv. It transitioned to Twitch in 2014, the same year that Amazon bought out the company.
Clancy was already overseeing the day-to-day operations at Twitch. He was in position as President before moving into his new role this week. Unfortunately for him, the first act of his tenure as CEO is releasing hundreds of employees from the company.
"We’ve made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce," Clancy said in his note to Twitch employees. "[This] results in us having to say goodbye to just over 400 people. As a company focused on building community together, this decision was incredibly difficult and one we did not make without considerable thought.
"Like many companies, our business has been impacted by the current macroeconomic environment, and user and revenue growth has not kept pace with our expectations. In order to run our business sustainably, we’ve made the very difficult decision to shrink the size of our workforce."
Viewers and streamers are still choosing Twitch
Twitch are currently having to deal with competition like they've never seen before. It's coming in the form of new streaming platform Kick.com.
Trainwreck's new start-up is a long way away from being able to cause major damage to Twitch, with the majority of streamers both small and large still choosing them.
"Millions of streamers choose Twitch every day to build and engage with their communities," Darcy continued. "I and the rest of the leadership team are confident that we have big opportunities ahead to support you and grow Twitch. Our singular focus has always been on inspiring, growing and sustaining our streamers globally, and that will never change."
Twitch and Amazon's announcement of layoffs coincidentally coincide with GAMURS Group layoffs on the same day. The parent company of DotEsports announced cutbacks as a result of banking with the Silicon Valley Bank.
Twitch's layoffs are unrelated but are part of a bigger, industry-wide cutback. The tech industry had a massive boom during the Covid-19 pandemic and is now dealing with the issue of far less demand as life continues to return to normality.
It continues to be a troubling time for the tech industry at large and esports continues to suffer as a result.
Stay tuned for the latest esports and gaming industry news and reports.