Aream & Co., working with InvestGame, has published its Q2 2025 gaming investment market analysis. The report covers M&A activity, public market performance, and venture capital movements across major gaming segments. The findings show a market split between recovering sectors and those still struggling.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
Market conditions by segment
Mobile Gaming
Mobile gaming revenue from in-app purchases has plateaued at roughly $20 billion per quarter. App downloads are falling, which means fewer new players entering the ecosystem. Competition for the existing player base has intensified. In the US, Century Games, Supercell, and iKame posted the largest gains in incremental IAP revenue after platform fees.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
PC Gaming
PC gaming is growing. Steam revenue jumped 20 percent year-over-year in Q2 2025, and concurrent user counts keep hitting new peaks. Over the last five years, free-to-play PC titles grew at an average of 17 percent annually, while premium releases grew 13 percent. Peak concurrent players rose 11 percent per year on average. Recent launches like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Rematch, both published through Kepler Interactive, contributed to the quarter's performance.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
Console Gaming
Console performance follows hardware cycles and major releases. Xbox gaming revenue rose 5 percent in fiscal 2024. Sony posted 9 percent growth and confirmed 77 million PlayStation 5 units sold. Nintendo revenue dropped 30 percent as the company approaches the Nintendo Switch 2 launch.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
UGC Platforms
User-generated content platforms continue to expand. Fortnite and Roblox both saw concurrent user counts rise. Twitch had more games streamed but lower average watch time. Creator payouts across major UGC platforms increased. Roblox paid out $923 million in 2024, up 25 percent year-over-year. Epic Games and Overwolf raised their payouts by 11 percent and 19 percent respectively. Total creator earnings across these platforms hit $1.5 billion in 2024, a 20 percent increase. Investment in UGC studios has followed this trend upward.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
M&A activity rebounds
M&A volume in the first half of 2025 reached $9.5 billion, up 144 percent from the previous six months. Deal count climbed to 82, the highest since H2 2022. These figures exclude the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft deal. Mobile gaming dominated transaction activity, with Keywords Studios as a notable exception outside that segment.
Since 2018, private companies and investment funds have closed 68 gaming deals worth $22 billion. Recent major transactions include Niantic Games, Keywords Studios, Jagex, Liftoff, Dream Games, and Aonic. M&A activity has recovered since the pandemic, though the trend looks less pronounced when Keywords Studios is removed from the data.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
Public markets and valuations
Public market activity hit a four-year high in H1 2025. There were 26 transactions, a 24 percent increase in deal count and 134 percent rise in value compared to the prior year. Companies are using convertible bonds, share issuances, PIPE investments, and flexible credit lines more frequently.
The stock index tracking major diversified gaming companies like Tencent, Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts rose 58 percent year-over-year in Q2 2025. Windows PC and console developers including Capcom, Square Enix, CD Projekt Red, and Paradox Interactive gained 38 percent. Mobile developers had mixed results. Asian companies like Nexon, Krafton, NCSoft, and Netmarble grew 2 percent, while Western developers such as Playtika, MTG, and Stillfront fell 27 percent.
Valuations vary sharply by segment. PC and console developers trade at historic highs, averaging 18 times EBITDA. Major holdings sit at 15.4 times earnings. Mobile developers are at historic lows: Asian companies at 10.6 times EBITDA, Western companies at 5 times.
Most gaming stocks are trading near 52-week highs. Many PC and console companies posted flat or minimal revenue growth in Q1 2025, while mobile developers, despite weaker stock prices, showed stronger earnings. Nintendo, Capcom, and Take-Two are expected to draw significant investor attention through the end of 2026.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
Venture capital hits five-year low
Venture capital investment in gaming dropped to $800 million in H1 2025, a 77 percent year-over-year decline. There were 177 deals, the lowest count in five years. Early-stage funding continues to shrink outside web3 and esports. Pre-seed and seed rounds totaled $400 million across 85 deals. Series A funding reached $200 million across 18 deals.
Top content-related funding rounds in Q2 2025 included Bigger ($25 million Series A), HYBE ($21 million Series B+), and Amplitude Studios ($13.6 million Series A). In platforms and technology, Sett raised $15 million for AI-driven creative production, eloelo secured $13.5 million for its India-focused creator platform, and spAItial raised $13 million for its UGC platform.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
Since 2020, over $2 billion has gone into AI gaming startups across 283 deals. Türkiye has become a major hub for early-stage gaming investment, with 113 deals totaling $800 million since 2020. In the past 18 months, the country recorded 28 deals, more than any other national market.
Companies are increasingly using external capital to fund user acquisition. The most active venture capital firms over the past 12 months are A16Z Games, Bitkraft, and Laton Ventures. By capital deployed, Bitkraft led with $123 million, followed by A16Z Games at $107 million and Play Ventures at $98 million.
Gaming Market Report: Aream & Co Q2 2025
What's next
The gaming market in Q2 2025 is uneven. M&A and public market activity have improved, but early-stage investment remains weak. PC and console gaming lead in valuation, while mobile faces slower growth and investor skepticism. UGC and AI ventures continue to attract capital. Türkiye has emerged as a key destination for gaming startups. The market is in transition, with optimism concentrated in specific segments and strategies.
