Drake Star Sees Gaming M&A Activity Increase for Third Consecutive Quarter
M&A activity in the gaming sector has continued to increase for the third quarter in a row, with the two largest deals of the year being acquisitions by private equity firms, according to investment bank Drake Star. Activity is expected to continue to increase, with a broader recovery of the public gaming company market expected in 2025.
Global technology investment bank Drake Star has released the Global Gaming Report Q2 2024, which analyses the quarter of 2024 for gaming and esports, and outlines what to expect for the rest of the year and into 2025. "With 52 announced M&A deals and $3.5B in disclosed deal value, Q2 is the 3rd straight quarter of continued increase in deal activity that bottomed out in Q3'23 (33 deals)," the company wrotes. The largest gaming deal of the year to date was private equity firm EQT's acquisition of service provider Keywords for $2.8 billion. French mobile games developer Voodoo continued its diversification into consumer applications by acquiring social media app BeReal for $542 million; Infinite Reality acquired Drone Racing League and Action Face for $250 million; Nintendo acquired Shiver Entertainment from Embracer, the studio responsible for the Switch ports of Hogwarts Legacy and Mortal Kombat 1; and Miniclip, a subsidiary of Tencent, acquired game developer Futurlab, known for PowerWash Simulator.