AppLovin cuts another 97 jobs, including CEO of subsidiary studio Machine Zone

AppLovin has laid off 97 people, including “most of” the staff employed at subsidiary studio Machine Zone and its CEO.

As spotted by PocketGamer, these most recent 97 layoffs – which were effective as of March 21 according to WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) filings in California – come on top of a previous redundancy round earlier this year in which 89 people lost their jobs in January 2025.

It’s the seventh WARN notification AppLovin has filed since June 2022, with 120 jobs impacted in November 2024 and 126 in October.

PocketGamer reports that the CEO and design director at Machine Zone – the team behind mobile games like Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike – have all been impacted, with the CTO position cut in the previous round of layoffs.

One former employee intimated that “most of Machine Zone was shut down.”

AppLovin has yet to comment publicly on the cuts, but is currently recruiting for new roles.

In the first three months of 2025 alone, 1600 developers have lost their jobs, with cuts and closures at Freejam, Splash Damage, Piranha Games, Jar of Sparks, Ubisoft, ProbablyMonsters, Iron Galaxy, Sumo Group, Liquid Sword, NetEase Games, Toast Interactive, Night School Studio, Striking Distance, Until Dawn remake developers, Ballistic Moon, and – most recently – Eidos Montréal and PlaySide.