Investors Are Writing Bigger Checks… But Not for You!
Let’s cut through the noise: 2024 was a weird year for gaming. M&A dipped, but investments doubled. Jobs were lost, yet cash piled up on corporate balance sheets. Studios closed, but indies thrived. What’s going on? And more importantly—what does it mean for 2025? Let’s break it down.
M&A: The Party is Over, but the VIPs Are Still Buying
Gaming mergers and acquisitions shrank by 3% to $11.5 billion in 2024. Not exactly a crash, but definitely not the pandemic-fueled gold rush we saw a couple of years ago.
The biggest deals? EQT snagging Keywords Studios for $2.8B and Playtika scooping up SuperPlay for $1.95B. Meanwhile, Embracer continued its great garage sale, offloading Easy Brain to Tencent’s Miniclip for $1.2B. If 2024 had a theme, it was survival of the fittest—big players stayed hungry, but only for high-quality, profitable assets.
2025 Outlook? Expect more acquisitions, but only for companies that actually make money. The ‘buy anything with a pulse’ era is over.
Fundraising: Investors Are Writing Bigger Checks… But Not for You
Surprise! While M&A slowed, fundraising doubled. There were 996 deals, with the average investment jumping from $12M to $27M. In total, $93 billion has poured into gaming over the last five years.
The biggest winner? Epic Games, which landed a $1.5B investment from Disney—a clear bet on the metaverse. Meanwhile, Web3 gaming is still kicking, with $1.76B raised across 325 deals. Yes, Web3 isn’t dead (yet).
Here’s the catch: The money is flowing to late-stage companies, not startups. Only 15% of deals went to early-stage games in 2024, compared to 25% in 2023. VCs are slower, stingier, and pickier than ever. If you’re an indie hoping for funding, you’d better have revenue, traction, and a killer pitch.
Layoffs: The Harsh Reality of Industry Resets
Gaming shed 15,000 jobs in 2024, adding to a brutal 34,000+ layoffs over the past 2.5 years. Studios shut down, teams were slashed, and hiring slowed to a crawl. But finally, there’s a shift—January 2025 saw hiring match layoffs for the first time in ages.
Companies are leaner, meaner, and cash-rich—$60B is sitting in corporate war chests (and Tencent alone holds $20B). That’s good news for acquisitions and growth. But for developers? Fewer jobs, tougher competition, and an industry that’s still figuring itself out.
Indie Kings: How Small Teams Took Over 2024
While big studios struggled, indies crushed it. Some of the biggest hits of 2024 were made by tiny teams:
?? Palworld (100M copies, 10 devs)
?? Chained Together (5.6M copies, 1 dev!)
?? Balatro (5M copies, 1 dev!)
?? Dark and Darker (3M copies, 25 devs)
?? Manor Lords (2.7M copies, 1 dev!)
Lesson? Big doesn’t always win. Smart, focused, and innovative does.
What’s Next? 2025’s Big Game Changers
Switch 2 and GTA VI will bring a massive wave of player engagement. More M&A and funding, but only for profitable companies. Roblox (89M DAU) and Fortnite (110M MAU) will keep reshaping the industry. Alternative platforms like Telegram gaming (950M users) are exploding. AI is still an industry laggard—but that won’t last forever.
Final Thought: The gaming industry isn’t broken. It’s just changing. Survival belongs to those who adapt.
What do you think? Are we in for a comeback in 2025, or is this the new normal?