In January 2024, Discord laid off 17% of its employees.
The reduction affected about 170 people. CEO Jason Citron told employees that Discord’s workforce had grown fivefold since 2020 and that the company needed to become more efficient and sharpen its focus. The cuts came after Discord’s rapid expansion during the pandemic-era surge in online communication and gaming.
The January reduction was not Discord’s first recent staffing cut. In August 2023, the company had already laid off about 4% of its staff, or roughly 40 employees, in a restructuring effort. The later 17% action was therefore a substantially larger round.
A common mistake is to answer 4%, because that figure belongs to the earlier 2023 layoffs. The 25% and 10% options do not match the January 2024 announcement, while 17% refers to the share of Discord’s workforce affected, not a decline in users or revenue.