Game financings and M&A are dropping to pre-COVID levels.

Closed game deals hit record in 2023 but deal activity mixed in Q4 | Drake Star

In 2023, the value of closed game mergers and acquisitions hit a record of $86 billion, according to the Drake Star Global Gaming Report 2023. But deal activity for both acquisitions and fundings was mixed at the end of the year.

Most of the $86 billion in value came from the closing of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. That deal, delayed by regulatory challenges, reflected the gung-ho financial environment of 2022. But deals launched in the fourth quarter of 2023 were a lot less exuberant.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.