Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $100M → GreaterThan Group launches investment platform for gaming studios

   1. Former NetEase investment head Simon Zhu launches GreaterThan Group to back top gaming teams.

2. 70M → Grand Games raises Series B

   1. A major studio funding round and one of the week’s biggest disclosed deals.

3. Rs 93 Cr → Zerodha buys Nazara Technologies stake

   1. A fresh India gaming signal amid a major promoter exit.

4. $8M → Origin Lab raises seed round

   1. Building licensed game-world data infrastructure for world models and multimodal AI.

5. $5M → Odd Meter raises for next project

   1. The Indika developer secures funding for its next title.

6. Undisclosed → Soloband Games secures Series A from Zubr Capital

   1. Fresh capital for the studio’s next phase of growth.

7. Undisclosed → Sensor Tower acquires AppMagic

   1. Market intelligence consolidation for mobile apps and games.

8. Undisclosed → Veroplay acquires Moving Eye Games and Swamp Attack

   1. Portfolio expansion through studio and IP acquisition.

Studios & Ecosystem

9. GreaterThan backs Arcanaut Studios

   1. Casey Hudson’s Arcanaut Studios is among GreaterThan’s first investments.

10. Stupendium Softworks launches

    1. A new indie studio from an industry veteran and YouTube musician.

Adjacent Capital

11. $56B → eBay rejects GameStop bid

    1. A gaming-adjacent corporate move that did not land, but is still worth tracking.

This week’s pattern: AI infrastructure, mobile intelligence, India exposure, and founder-led studios are all pulling attention.

Which deal surprised you most this week?

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $56M → Astrocade raises to expand AI-powered game creation platform

2. $7M → Kohort raises to build UA AI agents for mobile

3. $3.2M → Chance Studios raises for trading card collectibles platform

4. $2M → Mindtail Games raises for AI-driven puzzle games (Türkiye)

5. Supercell fully acquires Metacore (Merge Mansion) — undisclosed

6. EasyWin closes second seed at $20M valuation — raise undisclosed, backed by private EU investor

7. Mistplay acquires MAF’s MyChips — boosts rewarded play platform

8. InMobi acquires MobileAction — mobile growth platform

9. Atari acquires exclusive rights to first five Wizardry games and IP — undisclosed

10. CCP Games rebrands to Fenris Creations — Google takes minority stake

Fund Launch

11. $100M → Griffin Gaming Partners launches project financing fund for indie games

Adjacent Capital

12. $55B → GameStop submits bid to acquire eBay — corporate M&A, gaming adjacent

Studios & Ecosystem

13. Starbreeze partners with Gamefam — new Payday game coming to Roblox

14. Studio Ricochet launches — former heads of Gearbox Studio Quebec

Which deal surprised you most this week?

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

tCARe, Cartic
/@iCartic.com

How Unity AI is different from Muse:

1. Built into the Unity Editor

2. AI Gateway for third-party model integration, MCP server for IDE & external LLM access

3. Asset generators: materials, sounds, cubemaps, 2D & 3D

It’s available for devs with Unity6 license. Share your thoughts after checking it.

tCARe, CARtic P
/@iCartic.com

From top downloads to breakout revenue earners, a snapshot of April 26 WW global chart:

Top Grossing Titles: Honor of Kings at no.1 with $138M+ rev (up from $133M in March), followed by Last War: Survival with $114M+ rev, followed by Whiteout Survival with $109M+ rev

Top Downloads: Block Blast! at no.1 with 23.8M+, followed by Free Fire: Undersea Mystery with 22.7M+, Arrows - Puzzle Escape debuts at no.3 with 20.9M+ downloads

Games to Track in May:

1. Arrows franchise – Explosive dual entry with Arrows - Puzzle Escape at no.3 (20.9M+) and Arrows GO! at no.5 (16.1M+). Combined 37M+ downloads in 1month.

2. Royal Kingdom – Dream Games debuts at no.9 downloads with 12M+, early traction mirrors Royal Match’s launch pattern.

3. Honkai: Star Rail – Climbs to no.14 revenue at $36M+, miHoYo’s turn-based RPG building sustainable revenue quietly while competitors chase live service trends

vs March — What Shifted:

1. Block Blast! locks a 4-month streak at no.1 downloads (23.8M in April vs 25.6M in March) — slight decline but still dominant, proving staying power over viral spikes

2. Arrows franchise reshapes the download chart — 37M+ combined installs from two titles, the biggest puzzle breakthrough since Block Blast’s own rise

3. Honor of Kings revenue growth — $138M+ (up from $133M) — not just maintaining, actually growing after years of dominance

4. Royal Match back above $100M threshold at no.4 — Dream Games’ match-3 evergreen refuses to fade, now testing Royal Kingdom as potential second franchise

5. Puzzle and casual games own 8 of top 10 download slots — the market has spoken: simple mechanics, massive global reach

What pattern are you seeing in your market?

Charts curated monthly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $4.6M → Digital Bros acquires Wuchang: Fallen Feathers IP

2. Soloband Games closes Series A led by Zubr Capital — undisclosed

3. Distinct Possibility Studios (Reaper Actual) closes additional funding — undisclosed

Adjacent Capital

1. $335M → Modern Times Group confirms PlaySimple IPO filing targeting Mumbai listing — filing, not a closed raise

2. $110M → Sereact raises Series B to build action-simulating robots — robotics, gaming adjacent

3. $20M → Metasports Interactive secures non-dilutive UA financing

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $62.9M → Sanrio launches in-house publishing label Sanrio Games

2. $11M → LightFury Games raises — backed by MS Dhoni, Bumrah & Pandya

3. $3.1M → Spill Games closes seed (Centre Court Capital, PeerCapital)

4. Tamatem acquires Playable Factory — moves into AI-enabled ad tech

5. Atari acquires Implicit Conversions — brings classic games to new platforms

6. People Can Fly acquires Cooldown Games — undisclosed

Non-Traditional one

7. $58M → Firstpoint VC launches fund for AI gaming startups in emerging markets

8. $10.5M → PvX closes UA financing round

9. $4.5M → Uplane raises seed — AI replaces marketing agencies

10. $2M → Smash Games secures UA financing to scale Animal Suika

Sanrio entering publishing is bigger than it looks.
LightFury is the most interesting Indian gaming bet in years.
Playtika partners Bingo Blitz with Shortical — serialised storytelling meets gameplay.

Which of these moves are you tracking?

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

1. $30M → Reforged Studios secures strategic investment from MEP Capital

2. £28.5M → UK Government pledges for UK Games Fund

3. $10.7M → Packz raises in total funding for digital trading cards

4. $4M → Mission Control Games closes pre-seed for casual mobile

5. $3M → Enad Global 7 signs LOI to acquire Cold Iron Studios

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Last week's post: Benchmark drop: IPM, the metric that tells you if your creative is working, or just spending

I’ve killed more hypercasual games and creatives than I can count. The pattern is always the same:

→ Low IPM + high CPI = your creative isn’t converting. Fix the ad.
→ High IPM + high CPI = the market is competitive. Fix your targeting or geo mix.
→ High IPM + low CPI = you found the arbitrage. Scale.

Breakdown of IPM per genre

Two things to act on:

1. If you’re in a low-IPM genre, your creative has to work significantly harder just to hit baseline. Budget accordingly.

2. APAC trails at 8.0, creative fatigue or format mismatch. Worth auditing if you’re scaling there.

Last month, I dropped CPI benchmarks. This week: the efficiency side of the equation. → https://businessofgames.icartic.com/p/benchmark-drop-cpi-rates

Which metric drives your 2026 UA strategy?
tCARe, CARtic P
/iCartic.com

1. €8M → Rockfish Games lands German government grant

2. $2.5M → Playruo raises for cloud gaming expansion

3. Saudi Arabia raises Capcom stake to 6.04%

4. Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Cinemersive Labs (UK ML firm) — undisclosed

5. PlayVS acquires LeagueSpot — expands global reach, undisclosed

6. Five studios form developer-led holding Nova Assembly

Other notable raises

7. $24B → Paramount Skydance secures Gulf backing (Saudi, Qatar, UAE) for WBD acquisition — media deal, gaming adjacent

8. $5M → Krafton & Neptune launch indie & mobile game challenge fund

Studios & Ecosystem

9. Playtika launches portfolio-wide strategic review

10. LVL Zero Incubator names 10 Indian gaming startups for first class

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

» Other posts from last week: Trending game drop: Lands of Jail

» 20.4M+ downloads
» $77.3M+ IAP revenue
» $24.9M revenue from the US
» Strong RpD in East Asia: HK: $15.69 and JP : $12.93
» Large organic scale in BR (1.9M downloads) and IN (1.7M downloads)

What stands out to me:
Lands of Jail proves that theme matters just as much as mechanics. Proves that a strong theme can still unlock massive scale.

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $198M → LY Corp acquires majority stake in Kakao Games

2. €180M → Asmodee acquires ATM Gaming — expands social board game portfolio

3. $50M+ → Nazara raises to fund acquisitions and AI-led expansion

4. $5.2M → Pixie Chess closes funding round

5. €210K → Paparuda Studio funds first globally targeted video game

6. Shift Up acquires Unbound — Shinji Mikami’s new studio joins Korean publisher

7. Behaviour Interactive acquires The Fun Pimp — undisclosed

8. Mistplay acquires Connected Rewards — links gameplay with real-world loyalty

Studios & Ecosystem

9. Quantic Lab transitions out of Embracer Group

10. Maxim Krippa becomes co-owner of Burny Games

11. Rumour: Disney executives eyeing Epic Games acquisition

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

NEXON took a 20-year-old PC MMORPG and turned it into a $164M mobile hit in just 5 months.

Here’s the kicker: downloads started declining almost immediately after launch, but monthly revenue kept climbing.

Stats:
→ $164M in IAP revenue in ~5 months
→ $44M peak month (Month 4)
→ 7.6M installs
→ ~40% of revenue from $100+ SKUs alone

Broke down its reward system and monetization model: 27 reward mechanics, 9 monetization layers, and 10 hot deal trigger categories.

If you’re a game designer, producer, or anyone working on LiveOps and the game economy, this is worth studying.

Charts are curated monthly at iCartic.com
tCARe, Cartic P

Games to Track in April:

1. Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story – Breaks into top 6 revenue at $100M+, a merge game crossing that threshold is a statement from Microfun Limited

2. Magic Tiles 3 - Piano Game – Holds 11 downloads with 10.4M+, music games showing quiet resilience in a puzzle-dominated chart

3. Subway Surfers City – New variant debuts at 8 with 11.8M+ while the original holds 5 at 13.5M+. Miniclip testing a spin-off strategy — same brand equity, new gameplay loop. If this sustains, expect more studios to franchise their runners

vs February — What Shifted:

1. Block Blast! locks a 3-month streak at 1 downloads — not a spike, a pattern

2. Whiteout Survival surges ~22% in revenue vs Feb — 4X survival genre keeps climbing

3. Gossip Harbor crosses the $100M monthly revenue threshold for the first time

4. Traditional/casual games (Ludo King, Vita Mahjong) maintain strong chart positions — simple mechanics, massive global reach

Charts are curated monthly at iCartic.com
tCARe, Cartic P

1. $30M → Sett automates mobile games UA & marketing with AI agents

2. $18M → Bit Odd (ex-Supercell devs) soft launches debut game

3. $5M → Verse8 raises for AI-driven game creation platform

4. $4.9M → games2gether Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners

5. $3.5M → Psychedelic Games backed by KRAFTON, FlyQuest & Arbitrum Gaming Ventures

6. $400K → Afrime Studios enters seed round

7. Reforged Studios acquires Headup — expands global publishing footprint

8. Ramen VR acquires Coplay AI game dev assistant — undisclosed
   

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic

Funding & Investments

1. $4.5M → Antihero Studios raises seed round (a16z speedrun, Laton Ventures)

2. $4.5M → Cheer Games closes pre-seed led by Makers Fund

3. $4M → Vento Games closes seed round (Makers Fund, Arcadia Gaming Partners)

4. $2M → Minit Games raises to bring instant play gaming into the feed era

5. $23M → Sandbar secures Series A for AI note-taking ring

6. ~$9.2M → Hyperloop Games (India) secures debt funding from Syndicate Finance

7. $400K → Afrime Studios raises to build Afrofuturistic RPG Unyverse

8. ~$400K → Malmö backs new gaming startups annually

9. $1.5M valuation → Winter Wolves Studios secures investment in Türkiye’s first Roblox deal

10. NODWIN Gaming announces pre-IPO funding round

11. Quicksave Interactive secures investment from HyperScope Ventures

M&A

12. $6B → ByteDance sells Moonton to Savvy Games Group

13. $100M → Nazara acquires 50% controlling stake in Bluetile & BestPlay

14. $397M → Hasbro prices $400M public debt offering due 2031

15. €65M → Betsson acquires Rhino Entertainment Group’s Canadian operations

16. NCsoft acquires 70% stake in mobile developer JustPlay

17. Saudi EGDC purchases 5% stake in Capcom — becomes one of the largest shareholders

18. Meta acquires AI agent social network Moltbook

19. Balor Games acquires Humble Games catalog — seeks new indie partners

20. Xsolla acquires Vietnam-based games publisher Wetaps Corporation

21. NetEase acquires 10% minority stake in Xinghan Mingkong

22. Shamrock Capital acquires gaming creative agency Mutiny from Trailer Park Group

23. Splash Damage acquires Croatia-based Gamepires from Jagex

24. Tencent plans to acquire a stake in Block Blast! developer Hungry Studio

Studios & Ecosystem

25. Shinji Mikami forms new AAA studio Unbound

26. Ex-APPS team members form new mobile studio Rayo Games

27. Boss Fight Entertainment founders relaunch studio as Bossfight

28. Supercent and Sumo Digital sign MOU to co-develop next-gen mobile titles

29. Apple cuts App Store fees in China after regulator talks

30. Nintendo sues the US government over illegal Trump tariffs — demands a refund

31. Google Play rolls out Game Trials for full paid games before purchase

32. Games with loot boxes to receive a minimum age rating of 16 across Europe

33. India’s Karnataka bans social media for children under 16

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic


My other posts from last week:
» Benchmark Drop, IAP trends in HC puzzle
» Skip the sessions. Book the meetings

It’s not a battle pass. Not a starter bundle. It’s a fail offer — a $5.99 popup that appears the moment you lose a level.

Fail offers now account for:
→ 33% of total IAP revenue in Pixel Flow
→ 20% in Color Block Jam
→ 14.5% in Screwdom

And they convert 17–34% of first-time spenders.
HC puzzles have quietly turned player frustration into their #1 monetization engine.

The mechanic is borrowed from classic casual puzzles, but it’s scaling faster here — Sort, Screw, and Block Puzzles have doubled IAP revenue YoY.

The formula is deceptively simple:

Difficulty curve + limited lives + well-timed offer = revenue.

tCARe, CARtic P
/ iCartic.com

First GDC. Definitely not my last.
What stood out most from GDC for you this year?

tCARe, CARtic P
/ iCartic.com

Here’s your curated look at last week’s top deals in gaming, Top Funding & M&A Headlines.

Funding, Investments & M&A

1. $6.5M → Power Protocol raises to expand Fableborne

2. £32M → British Business Bank backs UK gaming sector

3. Clear Angle Studios acquires DI4D facial capture tech & IP

4. $8M → Giant raises to build interactive storytelling for kids

5. $3M → Tencent in talks for small stake in Hungry Studio (Block Blast!)

6. $19.5M → Interactive Strength acquires connected fitness game co Ergatta

Studios & Ecosystem

7. Mellow launches support program for indie studios

8. Netflix drops Warner Bros. Discovery deal — Paramount wins bidding war

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P


My other posts from last week:
» What dominated global charts in Feb26?
» Console dilemma: Build for India — or build for the world?

4. Block Blast! – Holds #1 for second consecutive month with 24M+ installs,

5. Vita Mahjong – Climbs to #4 with 13.9M+ downloads, a traditional games finding their mobile moment

Games to Track in March:

6. Magic Tiles 3 - Piano Game – New entry at #14 downloads (8.6M+), music games making a comeback?

7. Pokémon GO – Back in top 15 revenue at #13 ($44M+), Niantic’s AR pioneer showing resilience in year 9

Charts are curated monthly at iCartic.com
tCARe, Cartic P