Esports and gaming news publication GGRecon is set to shut down, according to former employees who posted on social media and spoke to Esports Insider.
Former staff said the website will shut down on October 18th and that all staff had been laid off after an all-hands meeting on Friday 4th.
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The layoffs and shutdown are a result of a sudden decline in page views following Google search engine algorithm changes over the past year, multiple former employees said.
Web traffic analysis site Simliarweb showed GGRecon as having 721,000 monthly visits as of August 2024.
The number of employees affected was not immediately clear, but at least eight employees have publicly announced their redundancy on social media. The company lists 10 staff on its Authors page.
GGRecon has yet to confirm the shutdown or issue an official announcement. Employees spoke fondly of their time at the company in posts on social media on Friday 4th.
“Everyone who has passed through GG[Recon]’s doors has been incredible,” esports journalist Jack Marsh said in a post on X. “I joined GGRecon fresh out of uni and poured my heart and soul into growing it from a group of three full-time writers to over 20 this time last year. It’s heartbreaking that one algorithm change can wipe us out. “
Esports and gaming news sites are among smaller, niche news publications and blogs that have been disproportionately affected by a Google search engine algorithm update called the Helpful Content Update.
GGRecon’s former Editor in Chief Lloyd Coombes, who has for months been vocal on social media about the dangers of Google’s algorithm changes, said in a post on X in May that the outlet had lost 95% of its traffic after being deemed ‘unhelpful’ by Google’s algorithm. Problems have persisted despite a site-wide rework to bring it in line with new best practices, Coombes added.
Several esports news outlets have shut down in the past few years as they reckon with the Esports Winter – the colloquial name for an industry correction in esports – alongside changes to search engine algorithms. But the news also comes amid wider layoffs across the journalism industry more broadly.
In esports, publications including Blix.gg, Washington Post’s esports and gaming vertical Launcher, Upcomer, Inven Global, ShiftRLE and more have shut down or paused operations in recent years.
GGRecon’s apparent shutdown comes just days after what appeared to be a layoff round at Dexerto, one of the biggest esports and pop culture news publications, on September 30th. It was unclear how many staff were let go in that round. Gamurs Group, the parent company of another esports news publication Dot Esports, also underwent a round of layoffs in September.
Esports Insider reached out to GGRecon for comment on Friday 4th but the company has not yet responded. This article will be updated if a response is received.
