M&A activity at Aream & Co declined to $500 million in the fourth quarter of 2025

Aream & Co, an investment bank, released findings that mergers and acquisitions in the video game industry were valued at only $500 million in the last quarter of 2025, marking an 89% decline compared to the previous year.

The bank's quarterly update highlighted that the Q4 merger and acquisition activities had reached a yearly low, attributed to a strategic focus on minor targets. Despite this, there were 39 transactions in this time frame, a 34% rise from the prior year. Asian firms were particularly active, with notable transactions like NCSoft acquiring Indygo Group for $104 million and Kakao purchasing the remainder of Kakao VX, evaluated at $114 million.

Investment in the public market during the quarter hit $1.7 billion, driven primarily by Tencent's significant $1.25 billion investment in Ubisoft and the spin-off of Coffee Stain from Embracer Group with a market cap of $616 million.

Private investments increased by 29% to $900 million across 102 deals, predominantly benefiting game technology firms and Turkish mobile game developers, such as Grand and Good Job.

Despite a slowdown in funding and investments, major diversified gaming companies, including Sony, Take-Two, Nintendo, and Tencent, retained around $111.8 billion in available capital as of the third quarter of 2025. In contrast, Asian mobile-centric enterprises held approximately $9.5 billion.

Pre-seed and seed stage investments reached $200 million in Q4, reflecting a 9% uptick, whereas Series A funding fell by 32% to the same amount.

Revenue from PC gaming saw a 20% surge year-on-year, which Aream & Co attributes to established franchises like Battlefield 6 and new entries such as Arc Raiders. Console gaming also experienced a boost, with a 13% year-on-year revenue increase, largely due to contributions from third-party developers.

During the same period, spending on in-app purchases for mobile games reached $20.7 billion, primarily due to enhanced monetization efforts rather than an increase in downloads. Companies based in Asia and Turkey significantly outstripped their competitors in this sector.

In addition, the financial returns on Roblox grew by 41% to $1.3 billion, illustrating the increasing significance of user-generated content, as stated by Aream & Co.