Global Gaming Industry Update | June 2021

LOS ANGELES | LONDON | July 2nd, 2021 – Drake Star Partners is pleased to publish the June 2021 edition of its Global Gaming Industry Update providing key insights into the deal activities in the Global Gaming market for the first half of the year. 2021 is turning out to be a phenomenal year for gaming industry with unparallel amount of deal activity. We are only six months into the year and the dollar volume for deals announced or closed is nearing 2x the dollar volume for full year 2020 with $60B in disclosed deal value over a total of 635 deals.

169 M&A deals were announced or closed during the first half of 2021 with a mammoth $23B in deal value while private gaming companies have raised $4.8B through 364 minority financings from VCs and strategics. Public markets are on hyperactive mode with 37 announced/closed IPOs with a staggering $11.2B in proceeds and 3 large multibillion valuation SPAC deals in first six months of 2021. With $16.4B in secondary and debt offerings in H1’21, public strategics continue to raise more capital to fuel additional inorganic growth.

• Record consolidation across mobile/PC-Console driven by major strategics (Tencent companies, EA, EPIC, Take Two, Byte Dance, Embracer, Stillfront)

• With $4.8B raised through private placements including 19 high value ($50m+) financings, investment from both strategic and financial investors is at an all-time high. Investment activity seems to be further accelerating with capital invested in Q2’21 exceeding Q1’21

• Public markets continue to be very active with several high-profile IPO’s, direct listings and SPAC deals: Applovin, Playtika, Roblox, Huuuge, Nexters, Playstudios, JamCity, TinyBuild, Nazara, Cherry Group and Krafton announced to raise $5B in an imminent IPO

The May update analyzes the first half of the year in terms of deal activity and volume across market segments (M&A, PP, IPOs, SPACs, public financings), M&A activity by volume and multiples across PC/Console and mobile segment, public market performance and valuations, and discusses the most active gaming buyers and VCs. The report further focuses on the market activities for the month June 2021 by breaking out the most significant deals across M&A and financings.

Drake Star Partners Gaming Team: Michael Metzger, Mohit Pareek

Inquiries

For further inquiries, please contact:

Michael Metzger

Partner at Drake Star Partners

michael.metzger@drakestar.com