"We Got Amazon'd!": Twitch Lays Off Over 2 Dozen People

Twitch, which is owned by the behemoth Amazon, suddenly laid off around two dozen people yesterday, without warning. Twitch is planning on growing around 30% in employees for 2018, but first trimming around the edges.

Variety reached out to Twitch and confirmed the layoffs, but denied comment on how many exactly were let go. The original story was broke by Polygon, but esports consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau reports the shocking tale.

“Twitch laid off more than 25 people from the Twitch Studios and Community/Marketing teams yesterday,” Breslau explained in a Tweet on Friday, “including several high-profile employees who have been with the company since Twitch began, sources said. People were told that Twitch had 'overhired', and this was to re-adjust.”

Some Twitch employees were fired by new Twitch VP of Content Michael Aragon who wasn't even in the office and did this via a remote Google Hangouts call. Employees were told to leave immediately. Morale is at an all-time low at Twitch, with one saying "We got amazon'd. Sad day."

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) March 30, 2018

He went on to detail the morale of the company currently, which wasn’t looking too hot. “Some Twitch employees,” he continued, “were fired by new Twitch VP of Content Michael Aragon who wasn't even in the office and did this via a remote Google Hangouts call. Employees were told to leave immediately. Morale is at an all-time low at Twitch, with one saying ‘We got amazon'd. Sad day’.”

Even though people were let go, Variety estimates the company has around 1,500 employees currently. In the response they got from the Twitch spokesperson, Twitch has “an aggressive growth strategy for 2018 with plans to increase our headcount by approximately 30%.” Doing the math, this comes out to Twitch planning to hire around 450 new employees.

The Twitch spokesman added, that “while we’ve conducted team adjustments in some departments, our focus is on prioritizing areas most important for the community.”

Confirmed names by Breslau that have been fired include: Justin Wong, VP, community and social; Ben Goldhaber (aka FishStix), director of content marketing; video production manager Adam Contini, and network content director Jon Carnage.

While the news is shocking, it’s all-in-all just a part of business. While Twitch remains as one of the top streaming platforms in the world, Facebook and YouTube are making their camps close by. We still await confirmation on the laid off individuals or even an official number, so this story may be updated at a later time.