Savvy Games Group has closed one of the largest deals in the history of mobile gaming — a Saudi holding company is buying Moonton Studio from ByteDance. The authors of the super hit Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are coming under the control of Saudi Arabia for an impressive $ 6 billion (about 480 billion rubles).
Table of Contents
Why Savvy Games Bought Moonton: A Strategy to Capture Mobile Esports
The purchase of Moonton is considered not just a replenishment of the portfolio, but a strategic acquisition of leadership positions in mobile esports. Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is at its peak right now: the game holds the bar at 110 million MAU (monthly active users), and the M7 series tournaments attract an insane 5.68 million viewers at their peak. Brian Ward, CEO of Savvy, has already confirmed that the deal will help expand global reach and strengthen the talent base. ByteDance, apparently, is finally locking in profits and withdrawing from the big gaming race, passing the baton to Riyadh. At the same time, Moonton itself is counting on powerful technological support from the new owners — Savvy’s financial capabilities will allow bringing the MLBB gaming experience to a new level.
Vision 2030 and Savvy Strategy: How Saudi Arabia is becoming a Gaming Leader
The Moonton deal fits perfectly into the pif gaming strategy. The PIF, a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund with assets of over $900 billion, is behind all this. Gaming here has long ceased to be just entertainment, becoming one of the pillars of the Vision 2030 program, which Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched back in 2016.
The plan is ambitious, and the figures confirm this:
-
Contribution to the economy: by the end of the decade, the gaming sector should contribute about $13 billion to the country’s GDP.
-
Jobs: creation of 39,000 vacancies for industry professionals.
-
Infrastructure: the construction of modern studios in Riyadh and the launch of a full-fledged hub for developers.
Savvy already controls shares of Nintendo and Bandai Namco worth $12 billion, owns the ESL FACEIT tournament operator and the Scopely studio (authors of Monopoly GO), bought for $4.9 billion. Now, with the addition of Moonton, mobile gaming, whose development focuses on the Asian market, will become a key driver of expansion. For the kingdom, this is a real diversification from oil dependence — the integration of esports with tourism and technology looks like a long-term bet that is already starting to pay off. By the way, the completion of the Moonton process still formally depends on regulators, but it is unlikely that serious obstacles will arise on this path.
