Savvy Games Acquires Mobile Legends Developer Moonton From ByteDance for $6 Billion
TL;DR
- Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group has acquired Moonton Technology, the developer behind Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, from ByteDance for approximately $6 billion, with the deal expected to finalise in the near future and existing leadership remaining in place.
- The acquisition significantly expands Savvy's mobile games division and esports footprint, adding one of Southeast Asia's most dominant mobile MOBAs to a portfolio that already includes stakes in Nintendo, Capcom, Nexon, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, and Koei Tecmo.
ByteDance is out of the gaming business. Savvy Games Group is getting bigger. And Saudi Arabia's grip on the global games industry just tightened considerably.
The $6 billion acquisition of Moonton Technology from ByteDance confirms what last week's rumours suggested was coming. The deal should be finalised in the near future, with Moonton's current leadership staying on and incentive programmes being offered to keep existing employees in place. When the transition is complete, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, one of the most played mobile games in Southeast Asia with hundreds of millions of registered users, sits under Saudi ownership.
Why This Deal Makes Sense for Both Sides
ByteDance announced its intention to exit gaming back in 2024, when the company confirmed it was in discussions to sell its game business. Tencent was initially floated as the most likely buyer, which would have been the obvious fit given Tencent's existing dominance in mobile gaming through titles like Honor of Kings and its stakes in Riot Games and Epic Games.
That deal didn't materialise. Savvy stepped in instead, at a valuation that landed at the lower end of the $6-7 billion range that was being discussed. For ByteDance, selling at $6 billion for a business it has been looking to exit for over a year is a clean outcome. The company gets liquidity from a non-core asset while focusing on TikTok and its core social media operations.
For Savvy, the strategic logic is straightforward. Mobile Legends dominates Southeast Asia in a way that few games manage anywhere. It's the default MOBA for hundreds of millions of players across Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and beyond. Savvy CEO Brian Ward confirmed the acquisition helps develop Savvy's mobile games division and enhance its esports reach, and that's underselling it. MLBB's esports ecosystem, the M-Series World Championships, regional leagues across Southeast Asia, and a deeply engaged competitive community, gives Savvy an immediate and substantial esports infrastructure in one of the world's fastest-growing gaming markets.
The Bigger Saudi Gaming Picture
Moonton joins a Savvy portfolio that reads like a who's who of global gaming. Stakes in Nintendo, Capcom, Nexon, Take-Two, Activision Blizzard, and Koei Tecmo. The EGDC separately holds 96% of SNK and a freshly acquired 5% of Capcom. The PIF is part of the consortium acquiring EA in the $55 billion deal that shareholders approved late last year.
Add Moonton at $6 billion and the scale of Saudi Arabia's gaming investment becomes genuinely difficult to overstate. This isn't a diversified financial portfolio with gaming exposure. It's a systematic accumulation of the industry's most valuable properties across console, PC, and now mobile.
Mobile specifically is the segment that reaches the largest global audience, and MLBB's Southeast Asian dominance gives Savvy geographic reach that its console and PC investments don't provide.
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