Game Studio Closure Tracker — Q1 2026 Numbers

22 game studios closed in Q1 2026, the third-highest quarter on record. The breakdown by region and parent tells most of the story.

By region: 11 closures in North America, 6 in Europe (5 of those in Eastern Europe), 3 in Japan, 2 in South Korea. By parent type: 14 were owned by publicly-traded publishers, 5 were independent studios, 3 were privately-owned subsidiaries of larger media groups.

The most-cited reason in disclosure was ‘portfolio rationalization’ — corporate-speak for shutting projects that no longer fit the parent’s revised AAA roadmap. Indie closures, by contrast, were dominated by funding-cliff narratives: bridge rounds that did not close, publisher milestone payments deferred, or VC follow-on rounds that fell through.