More than 1,200 games journalists have left the media in the last two years
According to Press Engine data, the global pool of games journalists has shrunk by 25%
More than 1,200 video game journalists have left the media in the past two years and haven’t returned to the industry, it’s claimed.
That’s according to data supplied to VGC by Press Engine, a popular PR tool used by developers and publishers to distribute codes and press releases to a global database of journalists and content creators.
According to Press Engine, more than 600 journalists who regularly covered video games at major outlets around the world have disappeared from their database in the past 12 months.
Virtually the same number of people left their positions in the 12 months before that, the firm said, and haven’t taken up roles at other media companies since.
According to Press Engine’s database of ‘tier 1’ publications that cover games (which is defined as major websites, both specialist and mainstream, with seven-figure-plus audiences), the global pool of game journalists has declined by 25% in just two years. The vast majority of these departures were from specialist games websites like IGN, Polygon, or Gamepot.
If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023.
The figures highlight a significant drop in the number of people writing about video games, either because they’ve chosen to change professions, or been affected by the wave of redundancies that have hit most major game publications since the pandemic.
Further reading
Like the games industry, publications that cover video games have been rocked by a turbulent market since the highs of the COVID-19 pandemic. Media owners like IGN, Fandom, Gamer Network, and Valent have all cut jobs in the past year.
According to Press Engine co-founder Gareth Williams, the most significant contributors to job losses in the games media are an overall shift towards covering the biggest games, resulting in increased competition for those who remain, and harmful changes introduced by the Google search engine.
“A culmination of a number of factors has cost videogames journalism some of its brightest talents,” Williams told VGC. “The COVID highs, followed by lack of diversification in content, diversification of advertising spend, Google’s Helpful Content Update, summaries, and AI have all contributed to where we are now.
“Fan-led media might be the simplest route to consolidate revenue for publishers and secure the future for staff, but it’s only the start.”
He added: “In a consumer world where ad blocking is standard and Games as a Service and social media are communication tools where children and adults form their relationships, videogames media needs to evolve and innovate. Support your favourite publications, before you don’t have the choice.”
Veteran games journalist Alex Donaldson, who owns the publication RPG Site and regularly writes for major outlets, agrees that the games media’s recent troubles are primarily due to Google, but also to changing reader habits. He also argued that layoffs could have been avoided with better management of media businesses.
Further reading
“We’re now seeing increasing numbers of brands ran off the road entirely through a confluence of factors but certainly primarily led by search changes, Google’s AI summaries, and even user behaviour changes as a portion of queries move directly to services like ChatGPT,” he said.
“My expectation is that games media will continue to shrink for at least the next twelve months – any earthquake has aftershocks, and I’m currently not even convinced that we’ve hit the grip of the main earthquake yet – this might be the foreshocks.
“For quality games media, I continue to believe that the best form of stability is dedicated reader bases to remove reliance on funds, and a hybrid of direct reader funding and advertisements. If people want to keep reading quality content from full time professionals, they need to support it or lose it. That’s never been more critical than now.”
Donaldson continued: “Although, to be clear, this isn’t all on demanding reader support. A not insignificant proportion of the losses the games media has suffered, I strongly feel, could’ve been avoided with better management, clarity, and more realistic expectations on the part of proprietors.
“Even this week, we’ve seen talented people with a high work output laid off by a larger parent that doesn’t seem to have a solid strategy. The best protection against these sorts of losses for the media at large is a healthy slate of truly independent outlets not beholden to such parents. Supporting those is particularly vital.”
