Saudi Investment Fund acquires the studio that created Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in a $6 billion deal as the owner of TikTok wants to shift focus to artificial intelligence.

ByteDance sells its gaming studio Moonton

According to the latest Bloomberg data, Chinese company ByteDance (owner of TikTok) has agreed to sell Shanghai Moonton Technology—a developer of the popular mobile strategy *Mobile Legends: Bang Bang*—to investment group Savvy Games Group for $6 billion. The deal is expected to close soon.

Moonton's CEO Yunfan Zhang told employees that he will remain in his role along with other company leaders. The studio's headquarters will continue operating in Shanghai.

A brief history of Moonton

* Moonton was acquired by ByteDance in 2021 through Nuverse (publisher of *Marvel Snap*) for roughly $4 billion.
* The company employs over 2,000 people.
* Its flagship product is *Mobile Legends: Bang Bang*, which has registered more than 1.5 billion users and over 110 million active players monthly. The game ranks in the top‑10 most popular games in more than 80 countries.

Savvy Games and its growth strategy

Savvy Games Group, managed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is actively expanding its mobile developer portfolio:

* In 2023 it bought Scopely (known for *Monopoly Go*) for $4.9 billion.
* It plans to acquire Niantic’s gaming business (*Pokémon Go*) in 2025 for $3.5 billion.

Why ByteDance is moving away from games

By the end of 2023, ByteDance had effectively shut down Nuverse and is now divesting Moonton. This move allows the company to focus on developing generative artificial intelligence—the key pillar of its current strategy.