The $55 billion buyout of video gaming developer Electronic Arts (EA) by a consortium led by Affinity Partners, Silver Lake, and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is an M&A blockbuster.

The deal not only ranks as the largest sponsor-led acquisition in gaming history, but also as the largest leveraged buyout on record, and has already had a transformative impact on the video gaming M&A ecosystem.

The deal has pushed Q3 2025 video gaming deal value up to $56.9 billion, which ranks as the second biggest quarter for deal value ever. Only the $69.1 billion posted in Q4 2023, when Microsoft completed its buyout of Activision Blizzard, ranks higher, according to figures from boutique investment bank Aream & Co and specialist research consultancy InvestGame.

The jumbo EA deal has also pushed video gaming M&A deal value for the year to the end of Q3 2025 to $65.4 billion, according to Aream & Co and InvestGame, more than 14 times the $4.5 billion recorded over the same period in 2024.

A busy segment for deals

Before the EA mega buyout, however, momentum in the video gaming sector was building in 2025.

In March Scopely, a mobile ad web-based game developer, acquired augmented reality (AR) and mobile gaming business Niantic in a $3.5 billion deal, and in May CVC Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in Dream Games in a deal valuing the Turkish-based developer of puzzle game Royal Match at $5bn.

Deal activity in video gaming has been driven by a variety of factors, with video gaming businesses turning to M&A to fulfil a wide range of strategic objectives.

The industry, which is worth an estimated $178 billion, according to Bloomberg, enjoyed huge growth through the lockdown period, encouraging developers to ramp up budgets for ambitious new game launches. The market, however, became saturated with new titles at high prices. Players stuck with their favourite games, which lead to weakening sales and gaming studio closures.

In the face of these headwinds, the sector has been consolidating, with video gaming groups looking for M&A opportunities to acquire peers and gain economies of scale and synergies.

There have also been a number of minority deals in the market, with companies taking minority stakes in peers in order to deepen partnerships. Sony, for example, took a 2.5% stake in anime and gaming group Bandai Namco in a $464 million deal. The two Japanese entertainment groups have collaborated previously, but the deal signals a further deepening of ties as the two groups combine Sony’s large distribution and production infrastructure with Bandai Namco’s anime and manga intellectual property (IP).

Growth still on the agenda

Consolidation and synergies will continue to animate M&A in video gaming in the short-to-mid-term, but dealmakers are also back on the lookout for opportunities to  acquire growth and invest in businesses with strong IP and proven gaming portfolios that have built up loyal fan bases.

Aream & Co notes that the investment market is bifurcating, with capital coalescing around large gaming companies that have established portfolios (a key strategic rationale for the dealmakers investing EA), as well as targets with compelling gaming IP and distinctive capabilities in chosen platforms, ranging from consoles and PC gaming to mobile and augmented reality.

Gaming user engagement is strong and spending on mobile gaming, PC games, and console is rallying after the post-pandemic dip.

Deal opportunities are emerging, but predominantly for video gaming companies with a track record of monetizing upfront development costs, maximizing the value of IP libraries, and nurturing sticky, engaged customer bases.