PitchBook年二季度游戏风险投资趋势

EMERGING TECH RESEARCH Gaming VC Trends VC activity across the gaming ecosystem REPORT PREVIEWThe full report is available through the PitchBook Platform. Contents Gaming landscape3 Institutional Research Group Gaming VC ecosystem market map 4 Analysis VC activity5 Eric BellomoSenior Research Analyst,E-commerce and Gamingeric.bellomo@pitchbook.com Gaming VC deal summary24 Data Harrison WaldockData Analyst pbinstitutionalresearch@pitchbook.com Publishing Report designed byJosie Doan,Jenna O’Malley, andMegan Woodard Published on September 16, 2025 Gaminglandscape DevelopmentOperationsAccessContentExperience Gaming VC ecosystem market map VC activity Summary and outlook Venture activity for gaming contracted sharply in Q2. $904.6 million was raised across 113deals, QoQ declines of 27.2% and 17.5%, respectively. While deal value has been propped upin select quarters by a small batch of outsized rounds, deal count has consistently deceleratedsince Q1 2024. Gaming technology (gametech) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) activity continued to berobust in Q2 with $512.6 million invested across 39 deals (and $2.4 billion across 157 rounds ona TTM basis) due to advancements in multimodal generative AI (GenAI) and the need to reinin development costs and time to market. Nevertheless, content developers are the industry’sengine, capturing nearly half of all deals and more than two-thirds of disclosed exit value in Q2.The YTD median deal size increased by 19%, supporting growth across all deal stages, while themedian pre-money valuation jumped by 41.7%. Demand for interactive entertainment remains strong. 50 million viewers livestreamed theSummer Game Fest in June,1and another 72 million livestreamed Gamescom in August.2Industry-wide spending is projected to exceed $188.9 billion, surpassing the previouspandemic-era high.3Despite robust consumer demand, structural headwinds are mounting: Playpatterns are ossified; content supply vastly outpaces demand, with intense competition for userattention; and spiraling user acquisition and development costs are eroding margins. Investorsare signaling their trepidation: The number of VC investors actively backing content developers is pacing well below the prior year (1,129 in 2024 versus 330 YTD) and approaching parity with2015-2018 totals, and strategics are playing an increasingly prominent role. Q2 underscores the industry’s challenging unit economics, red-ocean console cycle and platformshift, and ossified play patterns. The exit outlook is even more strained. Combined VC- and PE-backed exits have totaled $347.7million from 26 exits YTD, the lowest run rate in our reporting period, although announced exitswill push these figures higher once they close. Premium assets continue to attract buyers—exemplified by CVC Capital Partners and Blackstone’s Dream Games buyout—but the bifurcationbetween top-tier assets and the rest of the pack is more pronounced than ever. This exit blockadeis complicated by the lack of viable IPO candidates. Discord is inching toward a public listing; EpicGames lacks a clear incentive in the near term; and other candidates, including Dream Games andNiantic, have opted for other paths. Only five other companies in our analyst-curated vertical arein IPO registration. Deal stage composition YTD VC deal volume has concentrated in pre-seed/seed deals (31.9%) with an even split betweenearly- and late-stage rounds (roughly 29%). Venture growth was the only stage to increase itsshare QoQ, rising from 3.6% to 9.7%. The pre-seed/seed and early-stage crunch persists, withtheir combined share declining from a peak of 77% to 82% of deals per quarter in 2022 to just61.1% in Q2. In contrast, late-stage and venture-growth activity has recovered, jumping from 18%to 22% of deals to nearly 40% over the same time frame. This pendulum swing indicates investorspresently favor established companies with commercial traction over early-stage newcomers,particularly as adjacent Web3 and Metaverse-induced hype has dissipated. Dealmaking trends Deal sizes and valuations VC deal value and count The YTD median deal size stands at $5 million, up 19% from 2024, growing across all stagesand led by the late stage, whose median increased from $5.6 million in 2024 to $7 million YTD.Elsewhere, pre-seed/seed rounds rose 21.2% to $4 million, early-stage deals climbed 26% to $6.3million, and venture-growth climbed 34.5% to $11.7 million. Valuations have followed a similarupward trajectory, with the median pre-money valuation rising from $21.1 million in 2024 to $29.9million YTD, setting record or near-record levels across stages. Gains at the pre-seed/seed stagewere more modest, increasing from $15 million to $19.2 million, compared with the late stage (from$40.4 million to $50 million) and the early stage ($42.8 million to $49 million), although a smallbatch of deals inflate these figures at the later stages. Gaming companies raised $904.6 million in venture