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(Bloomberg) — Savvy Games Group has agreed to buy the Moonton studio from ByteDance Ltd. as the Saudi Arabian firm builds up its mobile gaming assets.
The deal values Moonton at $6 billion, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified because the terms are private. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the near future, Moonton Chief Executive Officer Zhang Yunfan said in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. Savvy will leave the company’s management in place and employees will be offered incentive programs, he wrote.
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The deal is meant to develop Savvy’s mobile games division and enhance its esports reach, Savvy Chief Executive Officer Brian Ward said in a statement. Savvy, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion Public Investment Fund, is central to the kingdom’s aggressive push to become a global leader in video games. Moonton’s multiplayer mobile games are particularly popular in Southeast Asia, and include , which has been installed more than 1.5 billion times.
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this month, Ward said Iran’s recent attacks are threatening the perception that the region is a “stable and quiet place.” Saudi Arabia is working to become a global destination for gamers. The company’s plans include a gaming district within Qiddiya City, an entertainment destination being constructed near Riyadh with amusement parks, golf courses and arenas for video game competitions.
Savvy acquired Scopely, maker of the popular mobile game, in 2023. Through Scopely, the company also agreed to buy Niantic Inc.’s last year, spending $3.5 billion. Mobile makes up the majority of gaming spending, outpacing console and PC games, according to analytics firm Newzoo’s Global Games Market Report for 2025. Most of the growth is expected to come from Asia, it said.
“We are proud of Moonton’s impressive growth into a leading mobile gaming player in Southeast Asia,” a ByteDance spokesperson said. “This transaction marks a natural next step in its journey.”
Beijing-based ByteDance paid about $4 billion for Moonton in 2021, but is offloading it as part of a focus on generative artificial intelligence. The TikTok owner has been slashing jobs and winding down its flagship Nuverse gaming brand in recent years after the company failed to grab market share from Tencent Holdings Ltd. ByteDance is competing with Chinese big tech rivals and AI aspirants in developing foundational models and chatbots.