Global technology investment bank Drake Star has released its latest Global Gaming Report for Q1 2026. The report covers M&A activity, private financing and IPOs in the games industry. This quarter's gaming M&A activity reached a 15-month high.
According to the Global Gaming Report Q1 2026, released by the global technology investment bank Drake Star, the first quarter of 2026 saw a 15-month high in gaming mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with 51 deals and $117.6 billion in disclosed value. Over 93% of this was accounted for by Paramount's massive Warner Bros. Discovery deal, after Netflix declined to increase its offer. However, it should be noted that Warner's games business is much smaller than its traditional film and TV businesses and is also subject to significant fluctuations. The sector was driven by the success of Hogwarts Legacy in 2023, but then experienced a significant drop in sales in 2024. Studios belonging to Warner Bros. Games include Rocksteady, NetherRealm, Avalanche Software, and TT Games.
Apart from this mega-deal, the first quarter of 2026 saw the Saudi Arabian company Savvy Games Group acquire Moonton, the developer of the mobile game Mobile Legends, for $6 billion. This further strengthened Savvy Games Group's position in both the mobile gaming sector and esports. Moonton was previously owned by ByteDance as part of its games division, Nuverse.
Scopely, a subsidiary of Savvy Games Group, has acquired Loom Games (Pixel Flow) in a majority deal at a valuation of over $1 billion. NCsoft has agreed to acquire a 70% stake in the Berlin-based mobile games developer JustPlay for $202 million. "In 2025, JustPlay generated $173M in revenue and $19M in operating profit. The deal is part of Ncsoft's strategy to expand its presence in casual mobile games and is one of several recent acquisitions in the mobile casual space that the company has done," says Drake Star.
Drake Star: "In private financings, Q1'26 saw 106 deals with disclosed deal value totaling $785M. The 3 largest deals were in the AR / XR hardware category with RayNeo ($143M), Xreal ($100M), and Viture ($100M). Other notable rounds include Ares Interactive ($70M), VAST ($50M), and ZBD ($40M). (...) Public deals were headlined by massive refinancings from Light & Wonder ($2.13B) and Playtika ($500M). Hasbro added to the momentum by pricing $400M in new notes, while LY Corp. doubled down on Kakao Games with a $201M stake through equity and convertible debt. (...) Over the last 12 months, Griffin Gaming, Play Ventures, and Arcadia topped large-fund activity, while Impact46, Merak, and ForsVC led at the seed stage. Tencent, Sony, and Krafton dominated strategic deals, with Arbitrum, Animoca, and TBV leading in blockchain."
