London-based Tripledot Studios is buying the gaming portfolio of U.S. tech company AppLovin for $800 million.The deal is a mix of cash and equity.
Tripledot will pay AppLovin $400 million in cash, of which $150 million is upfront and $250 million is in the form of a promissory note (a formal IOU). On top of that, AppLovin will get a 20% stake in Tripledot, valuing the company at around $2 billion.
This acquisition brings ten new studios and 2,500 employees under Tripledot’s umbrella, instantly placing it among the top five independent mobile gaming companies in the world by revenue.
Some of the well-known games Tripledot now owns include:
Wordscapes by PeopleFun – with over 10 million daily players
Mobile Strike and Game of War from Machine Zone
Project Makeover by Magic Tavern – with 5 million monthly users
Viral hits like Wordle! and Hexa Sort from Lion Studios
Together, these games attract 25 million daily active users (DAUs), a huge number in a highly competitive market.
With mobile game downloads down 6% year-over-year, and advertising costs rising, companies are looking for scale to survive. Owning more games helps with cross-promotion, user retention, and data-driven advertising, areas where Tripledot already excels.
Tripledot might not be a household name, yet, but industry insiders know it well. Founded by former Facebook and King.com veterans Lior Shiff, Akin Babayigit, and Eyal Chameides, the company became profitable in just its second year. In 2023, it was ranked Europe’s fastest-growing company by the Financial Times.
Tripledot uses machine learning and analytics to understand what players like and keep them engaged. Its games are mainly casual and puzzle-based, designed for short, addictive play sessions.
This deal is Tripledot’s biggest move yet. It marks a bold shift from being a high-performing studio to becoming a global platform player with ambitions beyond mobile gaming, including PC and cross-platform development.
On the flip side, AppLovin is offloading its gaming division, but this isn’t a retreat. It’s a refocus. AppLovin’s real strength lies in advertising technology, particularly through its AXON AI platform, which delivers targeted ads across apps and social media.
AppLovin originally bought game studios to train its AI models. But now, with its ad tech revenues up 71% year-over-year to $1.16 billion in Q1 2025, it’s doubling down on that business. The sale also comes after AppLovin’s failed bid to buy TikTok’s non-China assets, a move that would’ve deepened its reach in social media ads.
Investors seem happy with the pivot: AppLovin’s stock is up 13%, and its market cap has quadrupled in the past year.
Because the deal is large and international, regulators in the EU, U.S., and Asia are keeping a close watch. Antitrust concerns are real, especially in Europe, where cross-border deals face tighter scrutiny under the Digital Markets Act.
Approval may not come until mid-2025, but both companies say they’re confident.
Bringing together 2,500 new employees across 17 cities will not be easy. Tripledot’s leadership must now blend its London-based, data-first culture with U.S. teams from Silicon Valley, like those at Machine Zone and Magic Tavern. And the competition is circling. Companies like Miniclip and Playtika are actively recruiting talent, so retaining staff will be key.
Still, Tripledot already runs offices in Warsaw, Barcelona, Jakarta, and other cities, giving it experience managing global teams.
Tripledot’s move is part of a wider trend in gaming: bigger is better. The first quarter of 2025 alone saw $6.6 billion in gaming acquisitions:
Scopely bought Niantic’s game division for $3.5 billion
Miniclip purchased Easybrain for $1.2 billion
In a world of fewer downloads and more expensive ads, larger companies can run more efficiently, promote games across networks, and invest in long-term IPs.
Tripledot is now in the same league as mobile giants like Rovio and Supercell, with the added benefit of being rooted in Europe. Thanks to EU single-market policies, cross-border game publishing is easier than ever, making European studios more competitive with Asian powerhouses like Tencent and NetEase.
For now, Tripledot seems ready to play on a much bigger stage.
And with 25 million players, $2 billion in valuation, and an ever-growing portfolio, that future might already be here.
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