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Investment bank Aream & Co reports that the games industry saw 54 merger and acquisition transactions during the third quarter, reaching a total value of $57.8 billion. This figure includes the $55 billion leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, which was finalized on August 5.
Market activity was notably concentrated in Asia. Significant transactions included Alibaba selling Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital for over $1.5 billion, the acquisition of Tencent's stake in Netmarble by founder Bang Jun-hyuk for $270 million, and Sony Music Entertainment purchasing a $180 million minority stake in GungHo.
While public market revenue grew 122% year-on-year to $1.3 billion, the console segment experienced a 12% decline to $14.1 billion. Aream & Co characterized this as the sharpest drop in two years, noting revenue decreases of 18% for Nintendo, 10% for Xbox, and 9% for PlayStation.
Private investment revenue rose to $2.8 billion across 137 deals, with late-stage funding hitting $2.0 billion. Conversely, mobile in-app purchases fell 7% to $19.6 billion. On the software side, FC27 led console sales with 4.9 million units, while the PC title Wardogs generated $103 million in revenue.
