ByteDance is negotiating to sell Shanghai Moonton Technology to Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group for between $6 billion and $7 billion
ByteDance is negotiating to sell Shanghai Moonton Technology to Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group for between $6 billion and $7 billion, according to sources familiar with the discussions. A deal could be finalized as early as this quarter, marking one of the largest cross-border acquisitions of a Chinese gaming asset and further cementing the Kingdom's emergence as a major force in global interactive entertainment.
Moonton's flagship title Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has accumulated 1.5 billion installations and maintains 110 million monthly active users, with particularly strong penetration across Southeast Asian markets. By viewership, it ranks as the number one mobile esports game, having built substantial competitive infrastructure around the title.
The transaction would deliver ByteDance a significant return on investment. ByteDance acquired Moonton in 2021 for approximately $4 billion through its gaming division Nuverse, positioning itself to challenge Tencent in China's gaming sector. That ambition collapsed in late 2023 when ByteDance wound down Nuverse, cut about 1,000 jobs, and began seeking buyers for remaining game assets.
Talks with Savvy stalled in 2023 over valuation disagreements before resuming in fall 2025, according to Bloomberg. Reuters reported the deal value and timeline for the first time, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity.
For Savvy Games Group, wholly owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Moonton represents another strategic acquisition in building global gaming infrastructure. The group acquired US-based Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023, which later purchased Niantic's gaming division including Pokémon Go for $3.5 billion. PIF is also leading a consortium acquiring Electronic Arts for $55 billion, expected to close mid-2026.
Adding Moonton would give PIF's gaming ecosystem a dominant mobile esports franchise with deep roots in Asia's fastest-growing gaming markets. The acquisition strategy aligns with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 economic diversification program, which has committed tens of billions in sovereign capital to establish the Kingdom as a global gaming and esports hub.
ByteDance's first and second-quarter 2025 revenues topped those of Meta, making it the world's number one social media company by sales, Reuters has reported. ByteDance launched an employee share buyback in the third quarter at a valuation exceeding $330 billion, up 5.5% from the previous buyback in March, sources indicated.
Selling Moonton would allow ByteDance to redirect capital toward core businesses: short-form video, e-commerce and generative AI. It would close ByteDance's most expensive chapter in gaming, exiting with a profit on its biggest acquisition.
Neither ByteDance, Moonton, nor Savvy Games responded to requests for comment. If completed at the reported range, the transaction would rank among the six largest gaming acquisitions in history.
