Who will buy AppLovin’s games studios, Olympics esports delayed, and DeNA’s profits surge | Week in Views

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The games industry moves quickly and while stories may come and go there are some that we just can’t let go of…

So, to give those particularly thorny topics a further going over we’ve created a weekly digest where the members of the PocketGamer.biz team share their thoughts and go that little bit deeper on some of the more interesting things that have happened in mobile gaming in the past week.

AppLovin to sell apps business for $900m as it focuses on ads

This week came the news that AppLovin is selling its games studios for $900 million as it focuses on its highly lucrative and fast-growing ads business.

Not all the companies are at the top of their game, but that sounds like a steal for the as yet undisclosed company acquiring the division. AppLovin’s partner studios include Athena Studio, Belka Games, Clipware Games, Leyi, Lion Studios, Machine Zone, Magic Tavern, PeopleFun, Zenlife Games and Zeroo Gravity.

According to AppMagic estimates, Magic Tavern, which has developed games including Project Makeover and Matchington Mansion, generated $281.3m from gross player spending across the App Store and Google Play in 2024.

Social casino studio Zeroo Gravity, meanwhile, racked up $256m in gross revenue, and hypercasual games publisher Lion Studios accumulated $72m from player spending (not including ad revenue) and 168m downloads. Wordscapes developer People Fun brought in nearly $100m, while Clockmaker creator Belka made an estimated $77.1m, and Cooking Madness maker ZenLife Games took $71.2m.

There’s a clear cut decision to finally break away from its games division, even if AppLovin isn’t getting maximum returns. A senior executive at a large games company previously told me a couple years ago that AppLovin had been trying to sell its studios for years even then.

It seems like AppLovin wants to focus on its growth story and build the narrative of revenue per employee, which CEO Adam Foroughi was keen to highlight in the recent investor call. 

Worth noting that advertising revenue in 2024 brought in $3.2 billion, up 75% year-over-year. App revenue, meanwhile, increased by just 3% Y/Y to $1.5bn. Looking at adjusted EBITDA, the ads business generated $2.4bn, while the games division made $277m.

Investors are also clearly happy with the decision to unhook the games division (and of course, the ads growth), with shares up 28% at the time of writing since its financials report.

With all that said – who could the buyer be? There’s been plenty of speculation online of course.

One of the top contenders includes Savvy Games Group. It’s worth noting Scopely’s chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said last year it was looking at a ‘mega deal’. He specified a ‘scaled global franchise doing hopefully at least a billion dollars in revenue’. Well, AppLovin’s games division made $1.5bn last year.

Meanwhile there’s Playtika, though it has just spent big on Dice Dreams studio SuperPlay. I’d also question whether it would truly want all those teams in any deal and would predict closures if it was the undisclosed party.

Other potential suitors are pure guesswork. Tencent? NetEase? An investment group?

With the deal set to close this quarter, it seems like we’ll find out soon enough!

Olympic Esports Games in Saudi Arabia delayed to 2027

The Olympic esports games, initially scheduled for 2025 in Saudi Arabia, have now been posted into 2027. This is due to organisational and logistical challenges and because the event still would need to finalise some aspects of the format and even agreements with publishers. 

I do wonder why they ever shared a 2025 date because, given all that the organisers still have left to finalise, it feels like this year was never going to be feasible. The glaringly obvious bad side of this situation is that a huge esports event that was supposed to take place and generate enthusiasm for competitive gaming is no longer happening anytime soon.

In general esports being part of the Olympics is still something many debate, with some feeling that video games have no place under the banner of what is traditionally known as the best of the best competing in physical sports.

Then there’s the issue of what games they can play at the Olympic esports. I can’t help but think this may be one of the big issues they are still contending with because the Olympics doesn’t particularly want to be associated with anything overly violent.

But times change, and while the most recent Paris Olympics had much higher viewership than that of 2020’s Tokyo’s Olympics, there has been concern over the years of viewership. Bringing video games into the mix can be seen as a way of appealing to younger audiences, and while video games may not be a physical sport, there is a high level of skill and strategy to be showcased.

As a lover of the Olympics and video games, I’m all in for an Olympic Esports. I hope that the extra time the organisers have means that it’ll prove to be a great example of competitive gaming when the time finally comes.

DeNA’s games business profits up 8,126.8% after Pokémon TCG Pocket’s success

Q3 went incredibly well for Japanese developer DeNA, thanks in no small part to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket.

I’ve spoken at length about the game’s various achievements since its global launch last October – such as estimates that it’s already surpassed half a billion dollars in revenue – but it’s fascinating to see how that translates into results for one of three co-creators.

For DeNA, TCG Pocket’s release quarter marked its fourth consecutive quarter of growth, with a 28% increase over Q2 and a 60% year-over-year revenue surge across its various business ventures.

Most impressively, profit in DeNA’s games category for the quarter surged by 8,126.8% to approximately $136.2 million. That’s right: 8,126.8%.

While the precise impact TCG Pocket has had wasn’t disclosed, the timing is extremely coincidental coinciding with its release, and DeNA did acknowledge the impact of this hit card game’s “strong performance”.