Public game company stock prices rise in Q1 but acquisitions fall | Drake Star

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Stock prices rose for publicly traded game companies in the first quarter, and could help revive a weak acquisition market, according to a report by Drake Star Partners. But the scale of that weakness became clear in Q1 as the total number of acquisitions fell 75% from 76 deals in Q4 to 43 in Q1.

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There were some significant changes in the quarter. Blockchain gaming fell from roughly half of all deals in 2022 to just about 20%, said Michael Metzger, partner at Drake Star Partners, in an interview with GamesBeat. That reflects problems like the crash of cryptocurrency prices, a downturn in NFT prices, the weak economy, the lack of high-quality blockchain games, low audiences and scandals like the FTX debacle.

“We focused on what actually did go well and what didn’t go well,” Metzger said. “The public gaming stocks across the board increased their valuations significantly. Volume came down quite a bit from 76 in Q1 to 43 deals in Q1, and most of the deals were small and midsized. That’s quite a drop from Q1 in 2022.”

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For all of last year, blockchain gaming was the most active segment (405 deals), followed by mobile (152) and platform / tools (131).

Gaming public companies saw a strong recovery in Q1, the report