The value of gaming deals across 2020 through 2022 amounted to $115.3 billion.
That’s according to the latest InvestGame report on private investments, mergers and acquisitions and public offerings throughout the games industry.
The report estimates that M&A for the last three years accounted for $71.2 billion. This does not include incomplete deals, such as Microsoft’s proposed purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.
Meanwhile, private investments for 2020 through 2022 reached $13.3 billion, and public offerings were worth $30.8 billion.
2021 was the biggest year in the period covered by the report at $55.3 billion, of which $33.1 billion were M&A deals.
All three categories were up year-on-year over 2020 – 57% for public offerings, 75% for private investments and 211% for M&A.
However, all three declined in 2022. Private investments were down by 31%, M&A by 17% and public offerings by 75%.
The report also looked into the venture capital funds behind the biggest deals, with Makers Fund named as the most active after doing 14 deals in three years, collectively worth $533 million.
Index Ventures followed with three deals worth $300 million, then Lightspeed Ventures with six deals with $273 million.
InvestGame also estimates that VC funds are sitting on $6.21 million in cash ready to be deployed on new investments.
“We expect the deal activity to remain more or less stable in 2023, as many gaming VCs are sitting on massive dry powders, with Early-stage rounds less correlating with macroeconomic pressure, and many new gaming startups coming along,” the company wrote.
“The end of 2022 was a bit calm, as many funds stopped active investing and paused to reshuffle its investment strategy; some funds have refocused its strategy split from actively finding new targets to allocating more money towards follow-on rounds of existing portfolio companies.”
InvestGame added: “All in all, multiple gaming funds have confirmed plans to fundraise soon or are
already in the process of closing the fundraising campaign — meaning more VC deals in the foreseeable future.”
Last week, Digital Development Management released its own report on games deals, stating that 2022 was the second-biggest year to date for investments and M&A in the games industry.
