Video game deals have taken a nosedive over the past 12 months, with the total value of all deals – that’s investments, mergers and acquisitions, and IPOs – dropping below $5 billion in 2015. An 81 percent drop on the previous year.
Those figures come from tech-advisor Digi-Capital’s latest report, which explains that, in contrast, the value of game deals in 2014 was over $25 billion.
Looking at the specifics, the report shows that video game investment fell by 30 percent, the value of M&As dropped by 75 percent, and the games IPO market was at its lowest level for a decade.
Although it looks bad, it’s worth noting that Activision’s $5.9 billion acquisition of Candy Crush creator, King, wasn’t counted as that deal technically hasn’t closed yet.
Due to the fact that Nevada now treats fantasy sports as gambling, deals involving DraftKings and FanDuel were also excluded.
Focusing on the $1.1 billion worth of video game investments that were recorded; mobile, console, PC, and other game related tech took the lion’s share of the cash, with AR/VR titles and MMO/MOBAs sharing what was left.
