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$60 billion worth of deals in the games industry have already taken place in 2021

Drake Star Partners adds up the activity

$60 billion worth of deals in the games industry have already taken place in 2021

The games industry has accumulated $60 billion worth of deals and investments to do with mergers and acquisitions in the first six months of 2021.

That's according to the latest report from Drake Star Partners which points to "unprecedented deal activity". Indeed, there's been almost double the deal activity in the first half of 2021 as in the whole of 2020, and that's despite Microsoft's $7.5 billion purchase of Bethesda during that period. 

The $60 billion has been spread across 635 deals, including investment rounds, M&As and public listings such as IPOs and SPACs.

June 2021 was a particularly busy month, with EA buying Playdemic and Take-Two acquiring Nordeus. Up to May 2021, the industry's total deal activity was a mere $47 billion. 

Where's the money going?

Significantly, this activity has been fairly evenly spread across sectors with 51 deals concerning PC and console, 44 for mobile, 36 for platform and tools and 38 for esports.

Image credit: Drake Star Partners

In terms of activity surrounding mergers and acquistions, the value of PC/console companies acquired was $11.9 billion, with $9.9 million for mobile firms - including the $2.1 billion EA spent on Glu Mobile. Other segments were small in comparison as they are less mature in terms of business.

Image credit: Drake Star Partners

Funding was more evenly distributed as PC/console game companies attracting $1.9 billion. Mobile then claimed $800 million, followed by esports-related businesses at $700 million.

You can access the full report (email required) via the Drake Star Partners website.

More deals are taking place every day. One of the most recent was Animoca Brands' announcement that it had raised a further $50 million investment

Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.