Tripledot to acquire AppLovin’s games business in transformative deal
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UK developer Tripledot is set to acquire AppLovin’s games business, the ad tech company has confirmed.
The deal will see Tripledot pay $400 million in cash, while AppLovin will pick up a 20% ownership stake in the company. The transaction is set to close by early summer 2025.
AppLovin said the $400m figure included $150m to be paid in cash at the close of the transactions, and a $250m secured promissory note to be issued by Eton Games Inc.
The move will see partner studios such as Lion Studios, Belka Games, Machine Zone, Clipwire Games, Magic Tavern, PeopleFun, Leyi, Athena Studio, ZenLife and Zeroo Gravity fall under Tripledot’s business.
It was previously stated by AppLovin that it planned to sell its business for $500m in cash and $400m in the buyer’s common equity.
Transformative deal
Earlier this year, AppLovin announced its intention to sell off its games business as it focuses on its fast-rising ad tech division. The mystery buyer was later reported to be Tripledot, though this was not confirmed at the time.
Tripledot has become one of the UK’s most notable mobile developers, working on titles including Woodoku, Solitaire and Triple Tile. Last year, the company acquired another developer, Get Color outfit Zephyr Mobile, for an undisclosed sum.
In 2022, Tripledot raised $116m in a Series B funding round, valuing it at $1.6 billion.
AppLovin and Tripledot both made the cut in PocketGamer.biz’s Top 50 Mobile Game Makers in 2024.
Meanwhile, Tripledot also ranked 11th in out Top 50 UK Game Makers 2025 list.
Looking ahead
It’s not yet known what the future holds for each of the companies acquired by Tripledot.
Machine Zone, the developer behind hit mobile games such as Mobile Strike, Game of War and Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire, saw its CEO and design director recently laid off, according to a California WARN filing from Applovin.
In a previous notice, AppLovin also listed the studio’s CTO as being affected by job cuts.
A number of staff have been let go from the company in recent months, with one former staff member claiming “most of Machine Zone was shut down”.
Historically, Tripledot’s focus has been on the casual market, rather than the midcore and 4X strategy games space.
AppLovin confirmed to PocketGamer.biz that Machine Zone will be part of the acquisition.
New details
Update: Tripledot and AppLovin have released more details around the deal.
Following the acquisition, the UK developer will now house 12 studios under its belt, adding 10 from AppLovin alone. The company will now span across 23 cities with more than 2,500 employees.
It will serve 25m daily active users and is anticipated to bring in annual gross revenue of nearly $2 billion, the company said.
“Creating and operating games is our passion,” said Tripledot CEO and co-founder Lior Shiff.
“Our mission is to become the world’s most successful mobile game studio. Acquiring AppLovin’s games portfolio is a big step towards achieving that goal – taking us from being a high-performing challenger to a true global leader. It gives us additional scale, diversification and access to the best talent globally. We’re thrilled to welcome these incredible teams to Tripledot.”
AppLovin CEO and co-founder Adam Foroughi added: “Seven years ago, we began acquiring gaming studios to help train our earliest machine learning models. However, we’ve never been a game developer at heart. We have immense respect for the creativity it takes to build games, including from teams in our studios.
“Today, we’re announcing we’ve finalized a deal to sell all of our apps business to Tripledot Studios. I have watched Lior build his company from the ground up and I have immense respect for his and the Tripledot team’s ability to run a games company.
“Lior and his team are some of the best operators in the business and give me incredible confidence they are the right partner to help these studios thrive going forward.”
