Investors Re-Engage With Gaming Startups
After several slow quarters, funding to companies in the gaming space has picked up a bit this year, driven by a resurgence in early-stage dealmaking and optimism around the ability of small studios to churn out hits.
In the first quarter of this year, investors put $265 million globally into early-stage rounds for gaming startups, per Crunchbase data. That’s a 65% gain from Q4 2023, and a roughly fourfold increase from Q3, during which investment hit a multiyear low.
Josh Chapman, managing partner at gaming-focused startup investor Konvoy Ventures, isn’t surprised to see the numbers tick higher.
“I think the industry has bottomed out from a funding perspective, and we’re now coming back to a pre-COVID norm,” he told Crunchbase News.
Chapman observed that unlike other sectors that saw a pandemic-inspired boost and subsequent slowdown, like takeout or connected fitness, gaming’s popularity hasn’t receded.
Certainly revenue is trending higher. Global video game industry revenue hit a record of over $400 billion in 2023, per Statistica, and is forecast to exceed $450 billion this year. The worldwide population of mobile gamers, meanwhile, is estimated at nearly 2 billion people.
