2026 GDC Survey Exposes Workforce Strain and Technological Shifts

The GDC Festival of Gaming (formerly the Game Developers Conference) has released its 2026 State of the Game Industry survey, revealing deepening structural pressures on game professionals worldwide, from layoffs to divergent attitudes toward generative AI. The annual report, based on responses from over 2,300 industry professionals, offers one of the most detailed views into game industry trends, technology adoption, and workplace sentiment across roles and studios.

The 52-page report shows that 28% of respondents have been laid off over the past two years, while half of all professionals said their current or most recent employer conducted layoffs in the last 12 months. Along with layoffs, the acquisition, closure, or merger of studios gained traction in the last year, with over 450 respondents witnessing at least one of these incidents.

The survey also outlined some persistent trends in technological usage within the game industry. The use of Gen-AI has become contentious among professionals, with 52% believing that generative AI is harming the industry.

Amidst the changing dynamics of the game industry, support for labor organizations surged in this year’s survey, particularly among U.S. professionals. About 82% of respondents in the United States said they supported unionization efforts, while only 5% opposed the idea.

Union supporters in the survey often cited layoffs and job precarity as key motivators for collective action. Most of the supporters (88%) were people who had previously been laid off and workers in the 18-24 age group.

GDC Survey 2026: Layoffs, Job Security, and Workforce Trend

According to the GDC report, 17% of professionals said they were laid off within the last 12 months, and an additional 11% said they lost work within the last 12 to 24 months. These figures round up to a total of 28% within the last two-year period. In the United States, the toll is even higher, with roughly one-third (33%) reporting job loss over the same period.

The layoffs are more prominent in AAA studios, with two-thirds of respondents from AAA studios reporting that there were layoffs in their companies. As per the survey data, around 27% of professionals from AAA studios were laid off within the last two years; as a result, they are more prone to anticipating future layoffs.

Survey data also indicate that major factors behind the layoffs, from company restructuring and strategic change to automation, have impacted the workforce. However, company restructuring was the biggest force of all, accounting for 43% of the total job losses. Cancelled project and project completion also impacted 32% and 8% of layoffs, respectively.

GDC also surveyed 100 educators and 50 students to understand whether the recent gaming industry layoffs have impacted their views on joining the field. They observed 74% of surveyed students are concerned about a future career in the game business, highlighting the “lack of entry-level jobs,” increased competition, and AI usage. Among educators, the view was more profound, with 87% either expecting “to see a negative impact on student placement postgraduation, or it’s already happening.”

Generative AI Sentiment Reflects Industry Shift in GDC Survey

Despite widespread usage of Gen-AI, sentiment toward their impact has grown sharply negative. In the 2026 survey, 52% of respondents said generative AI has had a negative effect on the industry, increasing from 30% in the last year and 18% from the year before.

According to the GDC survey, 36% of the surveyed professionals use AI, with a disproportionate usage across genders and age groups: “men (41%) reported using it more than women (35%), older workers (46%) more than younger ones (34%),” respectively. Adoption of Gen-AI also varies across disciplines, 58% respondents from both business professionals and support teams, including marketing-PR firms, use AI in their workflow, outweighing other job specifications. 

The survey also highlights that most people use Gen-AI for either research-related work, streamlining daily tasks, or coding and prototyping. Research and brainstorming accounted for most usage, with 81% of professionals using AI for it, and the least (5%) usage was recorded in player facing features.

ChatGPT (74%) and Gemini (37%) were the most-used AI tools among professionals. Around 22% of the respondents said they use company-specific internal or proprietary tools.

GDC Survey Shows More Developers are Using Unreal than Unity

According to the GDC 2026 data, 42% of developers reported Unreal as their primary engine, compared with 30% for Unity. Unreal’s lead was particularly pronounced among AA and AAA studios, where 59% and 47% of developers, respectively, favor it, while Unity remains stronger within older indie studios.

Almost 54% professionals at older studios are still using Unity. While the AA and AAA company workforce mostly shifted to Unreal, 38% free-to-play game developers use Unity. Godot has gained popularity among indie developers, accounting for 11% of the respondents using it.

GDC's Beth Elderkin observed that this parity between the use of Unreal and Unity may be attributed to the survey methodology. She emphasized that as the question was directed towards individuals in development positions, excluding other positions.

The 2026 State of the Game Industry report paints a complex portrait of a gaming industry while navigating labor instability, technological shifts, and changing workplace dynamics. The convergence of layoffs, scepticism toward AI’s long-term value, and overwhelming support for unionization reveals an industry grappling with both internal and external pressures.