Laid off from AppLovin.

What AppLovin layoffs have meant for employees

The public explanations around the cuts changed between 2022 and the rounds that followed. In June 2022 an Adjust spokesperson told AdExchanger the layoffs were a proactive step, "not unusual given the current macroeconomic climate," at a time when, the outlet wrote, many tech firms were freezing hiring against a backdrop of recession fears. By late 2024 AppLovin's software arm was growing fast, its revenue up 66% from a year earlier while the Apps segment was flat, SFGATE reported, and on the November 6 earnings call Adam Foroughi said AppLovin keeps its business team "pretty lean." On the February 2025 call, Foroughi named adjusted EBITDA per employee as the company's favorite metric going forward and said the focus would be productivity, automation and lean, high-impact teams. On the same call he told analysts it would surprise them how small AppLovin keeps its teams, and that the company takes the per-employee number seriously.

Foroughi has also said what he was looking for. Since taking over HR, he told analysts on that February call, his job had been to find areas of the business "not perfectly aligned with these organic opportunities." A source suggested to Mobilegamer.biz in October 2024 that AppLovin's entire product team had been eliminated, an unverified account, and LinkedIn posts the outlet relayed described Machine Zone and AppLovin staff in content production, product support, design and animation as affected too. In SFGATE's account, the November notice also reached employees at three AppLovin subsidiaries. If your job sat at one of those units, it could have ended on an AppLovin Corporation notice rather than one filed in the unit's own name.

At Adjust, Mobilegamer.biz tied the reported Berlin cuts to the same move away from product roles, describing them as part of AppLovin's drive to remove most product staff and let engineering lead. That reading is the outlet's. Adjust's new chief executive, Andrey Kazakov, wrote separately about the company's direction, saying changes there were "inspired by AppLovin's culture" and that a product-first approach led by engineering would be Adjust's future. Those reported cuts were at a German office, so for the people in them the record is press reporting rather than a filing in a US state's WARN archive.

The dates on AppLovin's California notices need care too. When AppLovin filed in November 2024, it said that "out of an abundance of caution" it was identifying all positions and titles of employees laid off in the last 90 days, according to SFGATE, so a notice like that one can list someone whose job ended weeks before it was filed, and separate notices may count some of the same people. If you're lining your own departure up against a notice on our WARN tracker, the filing date may come after your last day, and the day your job actually ended is the steadier marker to go by.

AppLovin's own accounting shows the cuts went beyond its Apps segment. More of 2024's workforce-reduction charges went to the Advertising segment than to Apps, its 2024 Form 10-K shows, and part of the early-2025 charge was stock compensation from equity awards vested early in connection with employee terminations, its first-quarter 2025 report says, though the note doesn't say whose awards those were or on what terms. If a separation offer reaches you, it may be worth weighing what it does with any unvested equity alongside the cash. And if your AppLovin job was in California, where the company has its Palo Alto headquarters and where every AppLovin filing in our tracker was made, the state's claim process is at California unemployment benefits.

A sourced history of AppLovin layoffs

• January and March 2025, two notices and Machine Zone's CEO

  AppLovin's California notices listed 89 jobs on January 15 and 97 effective March 21, according to PocketGamer.biz, the later one naming Machine Zone's CEO and design director. A former staff member claimed most of Machine Zone was shut down.

• Late 2024, Adjust layoffs at its Berlin office

  Up to 120 people were laid off at AppLovin-owned Adjust, sources told Mobilegamer.biz, with insiders putting it at up to 50% of the staff in its Berlin office. The cuts came in 2024, PocketGamer.biz wrote, around when Andrey Kazakov became Adjust's CEO.

• November 2024, a notice reaching back 90 days

  AppLovin's November notice said 11 workers would lose their jobs that Friday and listed 109 others laid off in the previous 90 days, SFGATE reported, and employees of Lion Studios, Wurl and MZ Games were in the tally.

• October 2024, two California notices and Machine Zone cuts

  California's records showed AppLovin laying off 65 people on October 3 and 58 on October 15, according to Mobilegamer.biz. Machine Zone's product vice president posted that he and his entire team were laid off, and a source tied the later cuts to a canceled game still in development.

• August 2024, a 61-job California notice

  AppLovin delivered a layoff notice for 61 jobs in August, SFGATE reported, ahead of the two it sent in early and mid-October.

• June 2022, a cut of about 12% of employees

  In June AppLovin announced a workforce reduction affecting about 12% of its employees, its second-quarter 2022 report says, and booked a $7.4 million charge, mostly one-time termination benefits. On June 27, AdExchanger reported that the layoffs took in Adjust's staff as well as AppLovin's.

What to do if you're laid off from AppLovin

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. AppLovin's biggest hubs: California. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what AppLovin's hub states run: California, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.