Netflix is laying off around 1,000 employees, or roughly 6% of its workforce, in the streaming giant’s biggest round of job cuts to date. Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters announced the cuts in an internal email Wednesday morning, and the company’s games division, including Helsinki-based Next Games, is among those affected.
The cuts are concentrated in product, technology, legal and HR teams, according to the co-CEO memo obtained by Variety. Netflix had about 16,000 full-time employees at the end of 2025. Sarandos and Peters told staff the cuts were about reprioritizing resources around the streaming core, and that Netflix remains on track to hit its full-year 2026 forecast: revenue of $51.0 billion to $51.4 billion, and an operating margin of 31.5%.
The games angle came into focus within hours. Licia Prehn, an HR staffer at Next Games, confirmed on Wednesday that she was leaving the company and looking for new roles. On LinkedIn she wrote: “You all likely saw the news from Netflix yesterday. As a result, I will be leaving the company. I have truly loved working for Next Games and Netflix.” Netflix acquired the Helsinki-based developer in 2022. The streaming giant has not said how many Next Games staff will be affected by the latest cuts, and a Netflix spokesperson declined to comment beyond the co-CEO memo.
The cutbacks come against a strong financial backdrop. Netflix generated $45.2 billion in revenue in 2025 (up 16% year-on-year) and net income of $11 billion (up 26%), and it crossed 325 million global subscribers in late 2025. But the company has signaled concern about engagement on a per-user basis slowing in the first half of 2026, and its Q3 revenue guidance came in below analyst expectations. Shares of Netflix were down 1.4% in midday trading Wednesday, to $69.45 per share. The company is scheduled to report Q3 2026 earnings on Tuesday, October 20.
Netflix has been one of the most aggressive platform-holders in the games space since its 2022 acquisitions of Next Games (Finland) and Boss Fight Entertainment (Texas), but its mobile-only strategy has kept the games division mostly out of the conversation about layoffs at peers like Microsoft and Ubisoft. Today’s cuts follow an earlier 2026 round that hit the global product team, and come four years after a 2022 layoff of roughly 450 staff following the company’s first subscriber loss in over a decade. Putting the cuts side by side:
| Date | Headcount cut | % of workforce | Main areas | Games impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | ~450 | ~3% | content, editorial, talent | none |
| Earlier 2026 | “several dozen” | small | global product team | none |
| Oct 15, 2026 | ~1,000 | ~6% | product, tech, legal, HR | Next Games, broader games division affected |
Our earlier coverage of the 2026 industry layoff wave includes the Ubisoft Germany buyout round at Anno 117’s Mainz developer earlier today.
Our read: A 6% cut at one of the biggest cash-generative companies in entertainment is a reminder that “strong earnings” no longer protects the games industry from cost discipline. Netflix’s mobile-games strategy was already running quieter than its 2021-2022 peak, and shrinking the games-division headcount without naming a games-specific number leaves Next Games’ roadmap under a cloud heading into Q3 earnings. For players, the practical question is which of Netflix’s catalog titles (and any still-in-development Next Games projects) lose active support first. Watch the October 20 earnings call for any games-specific color, and any silent delistings from the Netflix Games tab in the weeks that follow.
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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