The games industry saw $33.6 billion spent on investments last year.
As detailed in InvestGame’s Global Video Game Deals Report 2020, the money was spent across 664 transactions.
Moreover, 36 per cent of the total deals value occurred in the US, with four out of the top 10 transactions being based in the country.
Meanwhile, China follows with 27 per cent of the total value, also boasting four out of the top 10 deals.
M&A
Overall, $12.6 billion was generated last year through mergers and acquisitions, across 219 agreements.
There were a number of high profile acquisitions in 2020, from some big-name companies. Moreover, Tencent, Ebracer, Stillfront and Zynga alone were responsible for 60 per cent of the total deal value.
However, Microsoft secured the largest M&A deal last year when it purchased Bethesda parent company ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.
Meanwhile, Zynga also pulled out its wallet to acquire Toon Blast creator Peak Games for a cool $1.8 billion. Yet, the mobile games giant wasn’t done as it snapped up hypercasual studio Rollic.
Other big acquisitions include EA’s offer of $1.2 billion to acquire Code Masters, and the $1.3 billion Tencent spent on purchasing Leyou.
Investment
On the investment side of things, $5.9 billion was spent across 363 deals. Moreover, there was a “key focus on multiplatform game developers and publishers.”
One such deal saw Tencent make a minor investment in French mobile games developer and publisher Voodoo.
Furthermore, Sony made a $250 million investment in Fortnite creator Epic Games.
Going public
Last year, the games industry saw $15.1 billion generated through a range of public offerings. However, it had a slow start to the year and was “nearly grounded to a halt.”
Public offerings picked up as 2020 progressed, and people took a keen interest in games as they were a major source of entertainment while the coronavirus swept the globe.
NetEase was one company that benefited from a public offering after it made a second listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange, as it raised $2.7 billion.
Moreover, both Roblox and Playtika filed for IPOs last year. The former is now set go public via a direct listing at a company valuation of $29.5 billion, while the latter recently raised $1.88 billion through the sale of 69.5 million shares.
To the future
This year, InvestGame anticipates public game companies as a driving force for M&As with Tencent and Nordic firms expected to consolidate the market while US organisations also join the acquisition game.
Meanwhile, it is believed that large games companies will bring more investments to the industry.
Moreover, IPOs will continue, with likely candidates being Scoeply, AppLovin and Epic Games.
