Global Gaming Industry Update | May 2021

LOS ANGELES | LONDON | June 2nd, 2021 – Drake Star Partners is pleased to release the May 2021 edition of its Global Gaming Industry Update providing key insights into the deal activities in the Global Gaming market for the first five months of the year. 2021 is off to a flying start for the gaming industry, already becoming a record year in terms of dollar volume with first five months of the year surpassing $49B in disclosed deal value for a total of 527 deals announced or closed during this period.

142 M&A deals were announced or closed during the period with a staggering $21B in deal value, 3 SPAC deals with a value of $4.2B and private gaming companies raised $4.2B in 314 minority financings from VCs and strategics. Public markets continue to be highly active already reporting 23 IPOs with $5.4B proceeds. Public companies increased their war chest by raising $14.2B in secondary offerings and debt financings to fuel additional growth via M&A.

• While 2020 was an unprecedented year for the gaming industry, 2021 has taken the momentum to an even higher level exceeding all previous years on dollar volume
• Gaming market continues to see consolidation driven by the big strategics like Tencent (and companies), Microsoft, Embracer, EPIC, Byte Dance, EA, Stillfront and Zynga
• High inflow of funds into gaming companies primarily in the form of early and late-stage financing by VCs (Bitkraft, Maker) and strategics (Tencent, Sony, Warner Music)
• The NFT and blockchain craze spilled over into large gaming financings with companies such as Animoca and Forte raising large rounds at Unicorn valuations
• Public markets continue to be attractive and are seeing landmark gaming IPOs (Playtika, Roblox, AppLovin, Tinybuild, Huuuge Games) and SPAC deals (JamCity, Play Studios, Nexters)
• More PE firms are participating in M&A or financing deals (Carlyle, KKR)
• Public strategics are raising large secondary offerings and debt financings to drive further M&A (Embracer, EA, Playtika)

The May update analyzes the first five months 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 months of April and May by breaking out the most significant deals across M&A and financings.

Drake Star Partners Gaming Team:
Michael Metzger, Mohit Pareek

Enquiries

For further enquiries, please contact:
Michael Metzger
Partner | Drake Star Partners
michael.metzger@drakestar.com