ByteDance Dumps Gaming Studio Moonton for $6B Saudi Payday
TikTok's parent flips Moonton to Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group, pocketing a tidy $2B profit on the deal.
ByteDance is offloading its gaming unit Moonton to Savvy Games Group in a deal worth $6 billion. Savvy Games is owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
The TikTok parent company picked up Moonton for $4 billion back in 2021, meaning it's walking away with a $2 billion gain on the sale. Not a bad return for a division that never became ByteDance's core focus.
The deal signals Saudi Arabia's continued appetite for gaming assets. Savvy Games has been on an aggressive acquisition tear, and snagging Moonton — best known as the studio behind Mobile Legends: Bang Bang — gives it a major foothold in the mobile gaming space, particularly across Southeast Asia.
For ByteDance, the move represents a strategic retreat from gaming as it doubles down on its primary businesses.