Top 10 most expensive acquisitions in the game industry

From Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard to Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus VR, we have listed the top 10 biggest acquisitions in the game industry.

The video game industry is a lucrative and fast-growing market, with many companies vying to acquire successful studios and developers to expand their gaming portfolios.

It is common in almost every industry to have a more prominent company acquiring an upcoming and promising startup or a company that has the potential to do more. Here are the Top 10 most expensive acquisitions in the game industry, with a summary of the acquisition.

1.Activision Blizzard – Acquired by Microsoft for $68.7 billion

The biggest and most controversial acquisition in the video game industry was announced in January 2022. Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest names in the game industry, with popular game franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch under its belt.

Sony spoke openly about its concerns about the acquisition, saying, “No rival can catch up to Call of Duty.” Microsoft and Sony are at war with each other. Sony declined the offer from Microsoft to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms for three more years, while Microsoft claims Sony has been sabotaging the deal.

2. Zynga – Acquired by Take-Two Interactive for $12.7 billion

The Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive has officially acquired Zynga, both parties have finally confirmed the completion of the acquisition as of May 23, 2022. Take-Two‘s acquisition of Zynga is valued at approximately $12,7 billion.

3. Supercell – Acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion

Chinese tech giant Tencent acquired Supercell, the Finnish mobile game developer behind popular games such as Clash of Clans and Clash Royale, for $8.6 billion in 2016. The acquisition made Tencent the world’s largest video game publisher by revenue, and Supercell became Tencent’s highest-grossing video game company.

4. ZeniMax Media – Acquired by Microsoft for $7.5 billion

In September 2020, Microsoft announced the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, for $7.5 billion. This acquisition gave Microsoft access to some of the most popular gaming franchises, including The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Doom.

5. King Digital Entertainment – Acquired by Activision Blizzard for $5.9 billion

Activision Blizzard acquired King Digital Entertainment, known for Candy Crush, for $5.9 billion. Candy Crush has been crushing the mobile game charts for almost 10 years and proved to be one of the, if not the most, succesful mobile game ever.

6. Moonton – Acquired by ByteDance for $4 billion

ByteDance, the parent company of the popular short-form video app TikTok, has announced its acquisition of Moonton in 2021. Moonton is known for its hit mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. With the help of the acquisition, ByteDance made $1 Billion from mobile games past year.

7. Bungie – Acquired by Sony for $3.4 billion

Sony officially closed the $3.6 billion deal and acquired Bungie, the developer behind successful titles such as Halo and Destiny, in July 2022. The Japanese tech and video games giant made an announcement back in January 2022, stating that they have agreed to acquire Bungie and the deal is now completely official.

8. Mojang – Acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion

Swedish game developer behind the massively popular video game Minecraft was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion. Minecraft is the best selling video game of all time with more than 280 million sales.

9. Glu Mobile – Acquired by Electronic Arts for $2.4 billion

The combination of Electronic Arts and Glu accelerates EA’s mobile portfolio growth and will fuel new experiences in mobile, the largest gaming platform in the world. The deal will add significant growth to EA’s mobile business, building on its network of 100 million monthly active players in mobile, and creating a market-leading portfolio of more than 15 top live services across multiple fast-growing genres.

10. Oculus VR – Acquired by Facebook for $2 billion

The acquisition of virtual reality headset maker Oculus marked Facebook’s entry into the VR market and the transition into Meta. Although Meta has not yet accomplished most of its goals, this acquisition might be remembered as a milestone in the near future.

Honorable Mention

Peak – Acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion

Turkish game developer Peak Games was acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion in 2020, which is the single highest acquisition in Turkiye’s gaming space. Peak Games was known for popular mobile games such as Toy Blast and Toon Blast, which have been downloaded over 400 million times worldwide.

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