China’s undisputed leader in games and social media Tencent paid a rich price for an 84% share in Supercell. The Finnish maker of the extremely popular Clash of Clans. The $8.6 billion deal almost doubled Supercell’s valuation to more than $10 billion in just a year.
According to market researcher Newzoo, Tencent which is already worth $200 billion. This will capture 13% of the $100 billion games market, with the acquisition of Supercell. Thereby cementing the global number one spot in online games.
Tencent, which has a large social media business, is already the largest game company in revenues. The 84% stake in Supercell, comes with around 190 employees. It has four top-earning mobile games and is the highest-earning mobile game company, according to Newzoo.
“This is certainly a good deal for Tencent,” said Newzoo CEO Peter Warman in an email. “It solves a huge strategic problem. And provides immediate additional revenue potential. This year, Supercell is on track to make over $2 billion outside of Asia. This is significantly more than the $1.3 billion Tencent made outside of Asia last year. The majority of which came from League of Legends. Tencent will now finally make serious mobile revenues outside of its home turf.”
Combined revenues from both companies totaled $11.1 billion in 2015. Adding up to 12% of total game revenues generated globally last year. If their year-on-year growth continues at a similar level. The new venture will generate around $13 billion this year, or 13% of the world’s games market.
By comparison, Activision Blizzard (in which Tencent also owns a stake) and King made a combined $6.7 billion in 2015.
League of Legends, by Tencent-owned Riot Games, is a big source of revenues. But aside from that, Tencent has been struggling to grow its revenues outside of China.
“The immediate opportunity comes from the Android ecosystem in China. Representing around two-thirds of the Chinese mobile market,” Warman said. “Clash Royale is one of the best performing games on iOS in China. It has just recently launched on Android in the third-biggest store in China: 360 Mobile Assistant. Using Tencent’s store and QQ community represents an immediate $1 billion+ opportunity for Supercell’s portfolio in China.”