Unity cut workforce to 4,987 staff in 2024 at cost of $214m

Unity incurred $214 million in costs related to substantially cutting its workforce in 2024.

In its annual report, the company broke it down to $15m within cost of revenue, $48m within R&D expense, $58m within sales and marketing, and $93m within general and administrative expenses. It added it also incurred a further $53m in non-employee charges associated with its restructuring.

By the end of 2024, the game engine and ads firm had a total of 4,987 full-time employees. That marks a near 1,800 reduction from 2023, when it had 6,748 full-time employees as of the end of that year. In 2022, the company employed 7,703 staff.

The firm had previously announced its intention to lay off 25% of its staff in Q1 2024. Unity made further cuts to its workforce earlier this year, though it’s not clear how many staff were impacted.

It appears that Unity closed 23 offices last year, reporting that it had 34 offices across 17 countries by the end of 2024. In 2023, it had 57 offices across 19 countries, while in 2022 it had across 64 spaces in 21 countries.

It noted in its annual report that it is “continuing to evaluate our facility needs, and expect more changes in 2025”.

Annual report takeaways

Other takeaways from the annual report included:

• Unity said it experienced softness in the adoption of its platform by creators in China in 2023 and 2024.
• 1,254 customers contributed more than $100k of revenue last year, up from 1,222 in 2023.
• Unity said no one customer accounted for more than 10% of revenue.
• The company held cash and cash equivalents totalling $1.5 billion last year, down from $1.6bn in 2023.
• Since Unity was founded, it has generated an “accumulated deficit of $3.7bn” as of December 31st, 2024. It ended 2023 at $3.1bn.
• Unity expects to incur operating losses on a GAAP basis for the foreseeable future.
• The company admitted Grow Solutions (ads business) revenue was “negatively impacted by competition”.
• It’s currently working on a new AI-powered ads platform called Vector. However, it said it will take “some time” to show sustainable increased performance in its ads business.
• The company’s largest office spaces by square foot are Montreal (188,000 square ft.), and China (146,000 square ft.). In 2023, it highlighted Israel as one of its largest offices at 139,000 square ft.
• The lease for its San Francisco HQ will run out in August 2025 (as of December 31st, 2024).

Unity released its Q4 and year-end financials for 2024 last week. Revenue fell by 25% year-over-year to $457m last quarter, while it reported a net loss of $123m.

The earnings were higher than expected, and with the announcement of new ads platform Vector, shares in the company surged by 36%.