Playtika deal drives game acquisitions to record $25 billion this year

The total value of game industry acquisition deals has exceeded $25 billion so far this year, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital.

The $4.4 billion acquisition of Playtika by a consortium led by China’s Giant on Saturday has helped push the numbers to a record so far this year.

“This is yet another sign of late stage market consolidation around mobile as overall games market growth slows and rebalances between sectors,” said Tim Merel, the managing director of Digi-Capital.

So far this year, deals are up 12 times over the same period to date in 2015. The record was driven by a handful of major deals, including Tencent’s $8.6 billion acquisition of 84.3 percent of Supercell (at a $10.2 billion valuation), Activision-Blizzard’s $5.9 billion acquisition of King (announced 2015, closed in 2016), and the $1.8 billion acquisition of Perfect World Entertainment by its listed film counterpart (after the games company delisted in 2015).

Other substantial deals include the CMGE reverse merger in China (after its delisting from Nasdaq) and Vivendi’s acquisition of Gameloft.