Chinese tech giant ByteDance — best known as the parent company of TikTok — is reportedly nearing a $6 billion to $7 billion sale of its gaming subsidiary, Shanghai Moonton Technology, to Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group. If completed, this deal would mark one of the biggest mobile gaming transactions of 2026 and signal a major strategic shift for ByteDance away from big-budget online games.
Strategic Retreat from Gaming
ByteDance acquired Moonton in 2021 through its gaming arm Nuverse for roughly $4 billion, aiming to compete with industry heavyweights like Tencent and NetEase in the global games market. Moonton’s flagship title, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, is one of the world’s most popular mobile MOBA games, with over 1.5 billion downloads and more than 110 million monthly active users worldwide — consistently ranking among the top-played mobile games in over 80 countries.
However, after a 2023 internal strategic review, ByteDance began scaling back its gaming ambitions and restructuring its global games businesses. Selling Moonton would formalize that retreat, allowing the company to free up capital and refocus on core growth areas such as short-form video, e-commerce, and generative AI.
Saudi Arabia’s Gaming Expansion
The potential buyer, Savvy Games Group, is a Riyadh-based video game investment and publishing company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth vehicle, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). Savvy has been aggressively expanding its gaming footprint with high-profile acquisitions — including mobile publisher Scopely and the games division of Pokémon Go maker Niantic — as part of Saudi Arabia’s broader effort to diversify its economy and become a global gaming hub.
Acquiring Moonton and its marquee franchise Mobile Legends would give Savvy immediate ownership of a massive, globally engaged live-service title and further solidify its position in the rapidly growing mobile esports market.
Deal Status & Market Impact
According to Reuters and industry reports, ByteDance and Savvy Games Group have already agreed on the broad terms of the transaction, and a deal could be finalized as early as this quarter. Neither party has publicly confirmed the sale yet.
If completed at around $7 billion, the sale would represent a significant profit over ByteDance’s original investment and highlight the enduring value of strong live-service mobile franchises. It also reflects a broader trend of consolidation in the gaming industry, where sovereign-backed funds and large publishers are increasingly competing for top intellectual property and global reach.
