Weekly Gaming Reports Recap: October 13 - October 17 (2025)
The Q3'25 investment market review; GameDiscoverCo top-charts & more!
Reports of the week:
Aream & Co.: Gaming Investment Market in Q3’25
GameDiscoverCo: Top releases of September 2025 on PC and consoles
MTM: Remakes & Remasters in 2025
GameDiscoverCo: Which games are successful on Steam Deck
Aream & Co.: Gaming Investment Market in Q3’25
This report was produced in collaboration with InvestGame.
Aream & Co. is a global investment bank with a focus on gaming.
State of the Gaming Market
Based on Sensor Tower data, Q3’25 is a record quarter for IAP revenue over the past 4 years. However, there’s a clear downward trend in game downloads - in Q3’25 the figure reached 11.9 billion, the lowest point in the last 5 years.
Starting from October 22nd, developers will be allowed to integrate external payment methods in their games on Google Play in the US. They will also be able to openly tell their users about the opportunity to buy items outside of the stores. The court decision mirrors the same regulation that happened earlier to the App Store on iOS.
Developers, with the help of an Xsolla Buy Button, were able to increase revenue up to 120% on iOS. Starting from October 22nd, the same results might be achieved on Android.
Asian developers showed the strongest revenue growth in the US compared to Q2’25. The leaders are Century Games, Florere, and CyberAgent.
Publishers from China, Vietnam, and Cyprus lead in install numbers. Pakistan stands out - publishers from this country grew downloads by 27% YoY.
Publishers from China, the US, and Japan lead in IAP revenue in Q3’25. The table shows that Asian companies are growing in revenue, while Western companies are having a harder time.
The situation with average MAU is similar - Asian companies are growing their audience, while Western companies are barely managing to retain theirs. This may reflect differences in project operation approaches.
The PC market continues to show fairly stable growth. Q3’25 was Steam’s best quarter in the last 5 years - project revenue reached $4.8 billion ($3.7 billion from paid games). The platform’s biggest releases of the quarter were Borderlands 4 ($104 million), Dying Light: The Beast ($65 million), and Hollow Knight: Silksong ($64 million). Only one major new release wasn’t based on a franchise - Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.
The console market isn’t as rosy. While Nintendo shows record Nintendo Switch 2 sales, Xbox Series purchases dropped by 25% (compared to last year). Sony is relatively stable. Among the main Q3’25 releases on PlayStation are sports titles and popular franchises.
Roblox shows amazing CCU results - the platform surpassed Steam with its entire project library. Fortnite isn’t doing well as the project’s CCU has been declining since the beginning of 2025.
Aream also notes an interesting trend. It seems Twitch has a serious competitor - Kick. The platform is actively winning over audience share.
Investment Market - Overall Picture
In Q3’25, 49 M&A deals were completed with a total volume of $56.9 billion - including the announced Electronic Arts deal, which hasn’t closed yet.
5 companies completed public offerings. Transaction amount - $0.5 billion.
82 private investments in Q3’25 are publicly known. Their volume was $0.6 billion.
Excluding the EA deal, the largest M&A deals of Q3 are: AppLovin’s gaming portfolio acquisition ($800M), Sony’s stake purchase in Bandai Namco ($464 million - 2.5% ownership), and the Prime Insights acquisition ($250 million).
Among notable public market deals, Corsair raised $225 million in loans and a revolving credit line.
The largest private deals - XR/AR headset manufacturer Viture raised $100M; Benchmark and Sequoia Capital invested the same amount in Decart (a generative model for creating open worlds in real-time). Goodjob Games raised $60M from Menlo Ventures, Anthos Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners in a Series A round.
M&A in Detail
Q3’25 was a record quarter since Q4’25 in deal volume (including the Electronic Arts acquisition). Excluding it, the results are weaker than the previous 3 quarters. However, in terms of deal count, there’s a positive trend since Q3’23. In total, 130 M&A deals were closed in the first 9 months of 2025 - 11% more than in the same period of 2024.
Over the past 5 years, buyers have been interested in major developers and publishers with their own established IP.
Aream & Co. notes that over the past 12 months, most deals involved public companies.
EA and Activision Blizzard valuations are comparable - 7.4x - 7.6x EV / Revenue for the last 12 months and 20.8x - 21.2x EV / EBITDA for the last 12 months.
The acquisition premium was higher in the Activision Blizzard deal.
Aream & Co. notes that PE fund participation in gaming deals has increased significantly since 2021. Recent examples include deals with Niantic Games and Kammelna, as well as minority deals with Million Victories, Liftoff, and Dream Games.
Special note goes to Asian strategics’ interest in strengthening their positions in Western gaming markets. Notable players here include Krafton, Tencent, Nazara, and Sony.
Public Market Deals in detail
Strong activity on public markets in H1’25 slowed significantly in Q3’25.
Total deal volume for the first 9 months reached $10.4 billion - 73% more compared to the same period last year. But the number of deals decreased by 6% to 31.
Among the largest deals in the last 12 months: AppLovin’s senior notes issuance totaling $3.55 billion; GameStop’s convertible senior notes totaling $3.55 billion; PIPE deal between Ubisoft and Tencent for $1.25 billion.
All gaming companies have underperformed the Nasdaq index over the past 2.5 years (+118% since January 2023).
But those performing best are large, diversified gaming holdings - Nintendo, Sony, Electronic Arts, Bandai Namco, Tencent. They’re most resilient to market turbulence. Their index has grown by 84% since January 2023.
Starting from October 22nd, developers will be allowed to integrate external payment methods in their games on Google Play in the US. They will also be able to openly tell their users about the opportunity to buy items outside of the stores. The court decision mirrors the same regulation that happened earlier to the App Store on iOS.
Developers, with the help of an Xsolla Buy Button, were able to increase revenue up to 120% on iOS. Starting from October 22nd, the same results might be achieved on Android.
PC/console developers and publishers are doing relatively well - Capcom, Embracer Group, Ubisoft, Square Enix. Their index grew by 22% since January 2023.
Mobile companies are struggling - both in Asia (-2% since January 2023) and especially in the West, -38% since January 2023.
Naturally, this affects multiples. Western mobile companies trade at 4.5x EV/NTM (NTM = Next Twelve Months) EBITDA. Asian mobile companies - at 10.1x.
The market values PC/console companies highly - at 14.2x EV/NTM EBITDA, and best of all, large diversified holdings (16.2x).
Overall, almost all public gaming holdings gained value over the past year. Among Western mobile companies, only MTG is in positive territory.
However, valuation growth and revenue growth don’t always correlate. Many PC/console companies saw revenue decline in Q2’25 compared to the previous quarter, but valuations for many of them showed positive dynamics.
Private Investments in Detail
Things are bad. Private investment volume in the gaming industry continues to remain at historically low levels. Q3’25 saw the fewest deals in 5 years.
In total, $1.5 billion was invested in studios during the first 9 months of this year. That’s 63% less than the same period last year. 265 deals were completed during this time.
The number of early-stage deals is declining, and the number of Series A deals reached a five-year low.
Over nine months of 2025, $0.5 billion was raised in pre-seed and seed rounds across 125 deals. During the same period, $0.3 billion was raised in Series A rounds. There were 22 such deals in total.
The largest studio deals in Q3’25 include investments in Good Job Games, Distinct Possibility Studios, and Super Gaming.
The situation looks better for services. Large Series B rounds were conducted by Viture, Decart, and Appcharge. Combined, they raised $258 million.
Over the past 12 months, Bitkraft, A16Z Games, and Arcadia led in deal count.
In invested amounts, the leaders are Bitkraft ($113M), Bessemer Venture Partners ($97M), and Menlo Ventures ($83M).
GameDiscoverCo: Top releases of September 2025 on PC and consoles
Top Steam Launches - Units Sold
Hollow Knight: Silksong exceeded GDCo’s expectations. Based on median wishlist conversion, the game was projected to sell around one million copies post-launch, but it actually moved 4.2 million on Steam alone. Median figures don’t always reflect reality.
Borderlands 4 had a strong launch in terms of units despite mixed player reviews. It sold 2.1 million copies in September - roughly 1 million of those were pre-orders.
Dying Light: The Beast sold 910 thousand copies, but this includes free copies given to Dying Light 2: Ultimate Edition owners.
Among indie titles, strong performers included Megabonk (671 thousand copies), Shape of Dreams (664 thousand), and No, I’m not a Human (493 thousand copies).
EA Sports FC 26 launched at position 6, but the genre isn’t particularly popular on Steam.
Top Steam Launches - Gross Revenue
Borderlands 4 generated $135.7 million in September - making it the month’s most successful release. Hollow Knight: Silksong came in second ($68.6 million), with Dying Light: The Beast in third place ($45.7 million).
Silent Hill F landed at position 6. Konami reported one million copies sold, but the title didn’t appear in GDCo’s data - possibly because the publisher included physical copies.
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Three projects exited Early Access to version 1.0 in September - Hades II (sold an additional 350 thousand copies, total of 2.5 million), Slime Rancher 2 (additional 75 thousand copies, total of 1.6 million), and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (additional 75 thousand copies, total of 1.85 million).
Top Steam Games in August - Units Sold
F2P releases are excluded from this chart.
Excluding new releases, Helldivers II continues to sell exceptionally well. The game sold 754 thousand copies on Steam in September.
Strong numbers for Path of Exile 2 (638 thousand copies) and Peak (463 thousand - the game has sold over 11.7 million copies total).
Top Steam Games in August - Gross Revenue
GameDiscoverCo includes F2P revenue in this chart.
Borderlands 4 ($135.7 million) edged out Counter-Strike 2 ($133.1 million) in September gross revenue.
DOTA 2 ($32 million), PUBG: Battlegrounds ($29.8 million), and Helldivers II ($26.9 million) continue generating solid income for their developers.
Top Console Launches in September
Sports titles dominate on consoles. EA Sports FC 26 sold over 10 million copies in September (8.1 million on PlayStation; 2.3 million on Xbox).
NBA 2K26 also launched strongly - 4.5 million copies on PlayStation and 2.7 million on Xbox.
Borderlands 4 moved approximately 750 thousand copies on PlayStation and 600 thousand on Xbox.
Hollow Knight: Silksong sold over 750 thousand copies on PlayStation - an excellent result for a 2D platformer on the platform. Xbox sales figures are difficult to calculate since the game launched day one into Xbox Game Pass.
Skate was downloaded over 18 million times across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. The game’s DAU reached 4.8 million players in September. However, revenue figures (on Steam) are still far from top-10 territory.
Hollow Knight: Silksong sold over 850 thousand copies on Nintendo Switch 1/2. Hades II reached over 420 thousand players.
Subscription Services
The main September additions to Xbox Game Pass were Slime Rancher 2 (2.9 million players) and Hollow Knight: Silksong (2.1 million).
PlayStation Plus showed more modest September results - the subscription brought 770 thousand additional players to Stardew Valley and 300 thousand to Psychonauts 2.
MTM: Remakes & Remasters in 2025
General State
Over 200 remakes/remasters released since 2012
Around 30 remakes/remasters planned for 2025 alone
Many remakes/remasters sell better than the originals. Specifically - Resident Evil 4 Remake (2023): 4 million copies in two weeks; 10+ million units in 2 years (this is the fastest-selling game in the series overall). Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (2017): 20 million copies worldwide by 2024. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered (2025): sold more copies in 1 month than the original game sold in 15 months.
From the developers’ and publishers’ perspective, creating a remake or remaster carries lower risks, as there’s already an established audience. Launching new IPs, considering modern development budgets, is a challenging endeavor.
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Top video game genres.
Recommendations for game localization.
Largest game development studios & games from the region.
Cultural considerations & local holidays.
Top streaming platforms, influencers, and local shows.
Salary benchmarks for the gaming industry.
Payment data, tax information, and legal considerations.
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Additionally, a successful remake or remaster can pave the way for new projects in the franchise. It can also boost back-catalog sales by attracting a new audience.
What Do Players Think?
MTM, together with Rigour Research, conducted a study of 1,500 players from the USA and UK to determine their attitude toward remasters and remakes.
90% of respondents have played a remake or remaster. 76% enjoyed the experience.
Very few are dissatisfied with remakes and remasters - only 7%.
53% of respondents noted that remakes and remasters engage them in games more. 11%, on the contrary, see negativity in their release. And 36% believe it all depends on the quality of the final product.
For 80% of players, remakes/remasters are about comfort and nostalgia. 78% noted they love them for the opportunity to replay their favorite games.
71% of respondents note that remakes are a good way to share their favorite games with others, games that might have become outdated by now.
85% played a remake/remaster without playing the original.
67% of respondents believe that remakes/remasters are the best way to play old games.
30% of players believe that story and gameplay elements shouldn’t change in remakes and remasters. 35% think they should. And the remaining 35% believe there should be a balance.
What’s Important to Players in Remakes and Remasters?
Players expect improved graphics from projects; accessibility; faithfulness to the original; improved controls and gameplay, as well as fixes for known bugs.
26% of respondents are willing to buy remakes and remasters at the same price; 48% expect lower (compared to new games) pricing. 20% want to see remakes and remasters significantly cheaper than new games, and 6% expect they won’t have to pay for them (or they’ll be available in subscriptions).
How much time should pass between the original and the remake (remaster) is a big question, and there’s no clear answer (or expectations) here. 11% believe more than 10 years should pass. 18% are fine with a gap of up to 4 years. But most of the audience (71%) considers 5 to 10 years optimal.
GameDiscoverCo: Which games are successful on Steam Deck
GameDiscoverCo analyzed games that earned over $1 million on Steam and have more than 100 reviews from users who played them primarily on Steam Deck (over 50% of playtime).
Top 5 games by percentage of Steam Deck player reviews: UFO 50 (20.2%), Dungeons of Hinterberg (17.7%), OlliOlli World (17.7%), Minishoot Adventures (15.6%), 1000xRESIST (15.5%).
Many of these games didn’t hit expected PC benchmarks (1000-1500 CCU peak), but thanks to the Steam Deck audience, they still became commercially successful. For example, Minishoot Adventures sold 130 thousand copies on Steam, and 1000xRESIST sold over 100 thousand copies.
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The top 30 also includes Thank Goodness You’re Here!, Castlevania and Kingdom Hearts collections, and indie projects Crow Country and Cassette Beasts.
According to GameDiscoverCo, Steam remains the key platform for many indie games. Even projects with simultaneous Switch releases generate at least 60-65% of sales on Steam (Thank Goodness You’re Here!). And delayed Switch releases bring even less, around 10% of total Steam sales (Crow Country).
There’s a hypothesis that many indie game fans own both Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch, and simply buy the game wherever it launches first (and where it’s more convenient for them to play).
Genre Profile of Successful Games
Dominant genres among the top 50 games on Steam Deck: JRPG, Action-Adventure, Action RPG, platformers, and turn-based combat games.
Top 6 tags among the top 100 games: Singleplayer, Adventure, Action, RPG, JRPG, Story Rich.
Steam Deck Audience
According to GameDiscoverCo estimates, 5 to 7 million people bought the Steam Deck (for comparison: Switch 2 sold 5.82 million units in its first months). IDC estimated the install base at 4 million devices in February 2025.
Steam Deck users represent about 0.7% of total Steam users. However, the share of playtime on Steam Deck is higher - around 2.75% of total Steam playtime. This means the platform is primarily purchased by enthusiasts.
GameDiscoverCo believes it’s not worth targeting the Steam Deck specifically yet. But if you’re planning a release on Nintendo Switch 1/2, or resources allow, it can bring additional sales.