Drake Star has released its latest Global Gaming Report 2025, which covers gaming M&As, financings and IPOs. Two megadeals stand out in particular. The global technology investment bank is also positive about 2026.
Global technology investment bank Drake Star has released its latest Global Gaming Report 2025, which covers M&A activity, private financing and IPOs in the games industry. 2025 was a landmark year for gaming M&A, with a record $161 billion in disclosed deal value. Two mega deals (EA: $55 billion; Warner Bros.: $82.7 billion) drove most of this, while $6.2 billion was raised through private placements, ten of which were valued at over $50 million in 2025.
In 2025, gaming M&A was driven by two mega deals: the $55 billion leveraged buyout of EA and Netflix's announced acquisition of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion, including Warner Bros. Games. The latter deal has not yet been finalised. In parallel, Paramount–Skydance launched a $108.4 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Other notable deals included Niantic's gaming business being acquired by Savvy/Scopely for $3.5 billion, Applovin's gaming division being sold to Tripledot for $800 million, and Krafton's acquisition of the Japanese advertising and animation group ADK for $516 million. Netflix also acquired the avatar technology company Ready Player Me in Q4 2025, with Drake Star acting as financial advisers on the deal.
The total volume increased 14-fold compared to 2024 ($10.5 billion). Even if the still-unfinished sale of Warner Bros. is excluded, the difference to 2024 is still enormous. In 2025, 189 deals were recorded, compared to 197 in 2024.
"Private financings were led by mobile and AI. Major mobile deals included CVC/Blackstone's $2.5B investment in Dream Games, alongside raises by Lingokids ($120M), Good Job Games ($60M), and Million Victories ($40M). On the AI side, companies building AI world models with the potential to transform how games are made raised large rounds, including Luma AI ($900M), Runway ($308M), General Intuition ($134M), and Decart ($100M). Overall financing activity bottomed out in Q2’25 at 105 rounds, then rebounded strongly in the second half of the year, rising to 118 rounds in Q3 and 137 rounds in Q4." - Drake Star Global Gaming Report 2025
In 2025, $6.2 billion was recorded in private placements. This represented a 38% growth in deal value compared to 2024 ($4.5 billion). The most active investors in 2025 were Play Ventures, Bitkraft and Griffin Gaming Partners among the larger funds, while the leading seed-stage investors were Impact46, Merak Capital and Tirta. In terms of strategy, Tencent, Krafton, and Smilegate were the most active, while Animoca, Arbitrum Gaming Ventures, and Spartan were the most prominent players in blockchain gaming.
The most important public deals of the past year include the two Embracer Group spin-offs, Asmodee and Coffee Stain (valued at $615 million), and Ubisoft's $1.25 billion raise from Tencent. Take-Two completed a $1.19 billion equity offering and GameStop raised $3.75 billion in debt.
The Drake Star Gaming Index increased by 12% over the course of the year, thanks to strong results from Unity (+92%), Nexon (+63%), Netease (+57%) and Everplay (+54%). This equal-weighted index comprises the 35 largest gaming companies listed on their home stock exchange, each with a market capitalisation of around $1 billion or more. At the bottom of the index are Playtika (-38%), Shift Up (-44%) and Ubisoft (-50%).
Drake Star has a 'very positive outlook' on the gaming and tech M&A market for 2026. Key buyers to watch include PIF/Scopely, Netflix, Paramount, Tencent, Krafton, NCSoft, MTG, Take-Two, everplay, Sony, Keywords Studios/EQT and Jagex/CVC.
"Private equity is expected to remain a major force in the market, with several publicly listed gaming companies increasingly viewed as attractive take-private opportunities. We anticipate a healthy number of seed and early-stage financings, following the positive trend in the last quarters, along with select mid-to-late-stage rounds. Several new UA funds are expected to help scale mid-stage mobile studios. For financings, AI, UGC, tools and tech platforms are expected to continue to be shining stars." - Drake Star Global Gaming Report 2025
They are also expecting the launch of GTA 6, which they describe as 'likely the biggest game release ever'. Other highly anticipated titles include Marvel's Wolverine, Resident Evil: Requiem, Lords of the Fallen II and 007: First Light. As public markets recover, Drake Star expects IPO-ready gaming companies such as Discord, Animoca Brands, and MTG's SimplePlay to go public this year.
