According to reports from Jiemian News, 21st Century Business Herald, and other sources, ByteDance is set to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary, Moonton Technology, to Savvy Games Group—a company backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF).

The transaction price exceeds $6 billion (approximately 41.452 billion RMB), with both parties expected to finalize an equity acquisition agreement in February of this year.

The sale package encompasses Moonton Technology's main business entity and its flagship game, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (abbreviated as MLBB), along with the top-down shooter game Headshot Zone developed by its Shanghai studio, an ARPG competitive game, a PC-end action game, a PvPvE casual competitive game, a Team RPG titled Code A02 based on a DC IP, and its Guangzhou Lighthouse studio, among other assets.

When ByteDance significantly scaled back its gaming operations in late 2023, it had at least one discussion with Savvy. However, the deal initially fell through primarily due to pricing disagreements—ByteDance had set a minimum price of $5 billion for Moonton.

The reported acquisition price this time is $1 billion higher than the initial offer.

Moonton Technology was once considered ByteDance's premier asset for gaming globalization. It dominated Southeast Asia's MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) market, boasting a user base in the hundreds of millions, making it one of the most successful examples of Chinese game industry globalization.

However, since its $4 billion acquisition by ByteDance in 2021, Moonton Technology has been embroiled in rumors of being "sold again" multiple times over the past four years.

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In July 2014, Moonton Technology was established in an office building in Shanghai. Its founders, Yuan Jing, Xu Zhenhua, and Zhang Guanqun, all had backgrounds in Tencent Games, with initial shareholdings set at a 5:3:2 ratio, and Zhang Guanqun holding 14% of the shares.

At that time, the Chinese gaming market was undergoing a critical transition from PC to mobile gaming, with major companies focusing on domestic expansion. However, based in Shanghai, Moonton chose to "go global" instead.

Initially, Moonton Technology developed a game called Magic Rush: Heroes, which combined card collection and tower defense elements. It won Google Play's Best Strategy Game of 2015, establishing a foothold overseas.

But its true breakthrough came with the MOBA mobile game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, launched in 2016.

This game truly resonated with Southeast Asian players.

Compared to similar products on the market at the time, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang optimized compatibility for low-end devices and kept match durations around 15 minutes, better aligning with Southeast Asian users' gaming habits. Within two years of its launch, it had amassed over 200 million registered accounts, sparking a sensation in countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.

Moonton Technology didn't stop at game development but also focused on building an esports ecosystem. In 2017, it collaborated with the Indonesian government to launch the professional league MPL, attracting massive audiences to its offline events that year.

By October 2020, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang had surpassed 1 billion cumulative downloads worldwide, with peak monthly active users exceeding 100 million, becoming a national-level game in Southeast Asia.

At this point, Moonton had established branches in Singapore, Indonesia, and other locations, employing nearly a thousand people. Nearly 100% of its business was overseas, with core clients concentrated in Southeast Asia and South Asia, later expanding to Latin America. In 2019, it ranked among the top ten Chinese game companies in annual overseas revenue according to App Annie.

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In late 2020, Moonton Technology's management repurchased the remaining 2% stake held by co-founder Zhang Guanqun at a valuation of $500 million and completed the equity change without his presence, removing him from the shareholder list. Zhang Guanqun subsequently filed a lawsuit against Moonton.

Meanwhile, the external industry environment also underwent significant changes.

In early 2021, domestic game license approvals were suspended, and tighter policies plunged the industry into a funding winter. While the direct impact on Moonton Technology was limited, capital confidence in the gaming sector waned, making independent financing significantly more difficult.

Although Moonton's core product, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, had a solid foundation in Southeast Asia, its expansion into Western markets remained sluggish, consistently ranking outside the top 100 on iOS bestseller lists. Meanwhile, developing new games required sustained massive investments, leaving the company facing growth bottlenecks.

While Moonton's revenue was substantial at the time, supporting global expansion and new product development demanded huge capital. In 2021, both ByteDance and Tencent expressed interest in acquiring Moonton, with ByteDance ultimately winning out.

ByteDance's $4 billion acquisition offer that year (according to foreign media) wasn't entirely in cash: roughly $1 billion was in actual cash, with the remaining approximately $3 billion in ByteDance shares. For Moonton, this wasn't just an exit but a deal to "join a larger system."

Why was Moonton willing to sell to ByteDance at the time? There were three main reasons.

First, the traffic synergy with TikTok was too enticing.

TikTok had billions of users worldwide, especially dominant in Southeast Asia, highly overlapping with Moonton's user base. If the synergy worked smoothly, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang's growth potential could be reopened, and new product launches would naturally enjoy lower customer acquisition costs. This was an opportunity no gaming company could ignore.

Second, the promise of "independent operation."

After the acquisition, Yuan Jing continued as CEO, and the core team remained intact. For a startup, retaining decision-making power while accessing giant resources was nearly ideal.

Third, the equity issues were resolved once and for all.

Moonton had experienced equity disputes in late 2020, leading to a complex ownership structure. ByteDance's full acquisition effectively reorganized the equity through market-driven means, clarifying benefit relationships and avoiding further operational disruptions from disputes.

From the broader industry perspective, Moonton was also under increasing pressure at the time.

After Tencent launched Honor of Kings overseas, it directly competed with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang in Southeast Asia, steadily eroding Moonton's market share with its brand and resource advantages. In this context, aligning with ByteDance meant stronger funding, distribution channels, and risk resistance.

Additionally, the 2021 global pandemic disrupted supply chains and caused significant currency fluctuations, putting cost pressure on Moonton, which heavily relied on overseas revenue. ByteDance's capital and infrastructure could help buffer these macro risks.

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This acquisition, seen by outsiders as a "powerhouse combination," ultimately failed to deliver the expected synergies.

After the acquisition, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang maintained its strength in Southeast Asia, with its esports scene growing ever larger. The 2023 M5 World Championship peaked at 5.06 million concurrent viewers, becoming the world's hottest mobile esports event, and it was even included in the Esports World Cup in 2025.

However, Western markets remained tough, and new titles like Clockwork Brawl and Tidewatcher failed to replicate Mobile Legends: Bang Bang's success.

On ByteDance's side, due to domestic gaming business adjustments and a strategic shift toward short videos and cloud computing, resource support for Moonton gradually weakened.

In November 2023, when ByteDance significantly adjusted its gaming business, rumors emerged that it was seeking to sell Moonton. At the time, CEO Yuan Jing specifically reassured the team internally that they would "continue to deeply cultivate the gaming industry long-term."

In 2024, rumors surfaced again that Moonton and Nuverse (another ByteDance gaming brand) would go public together, but ByteDance denied these claims. After all the back-and-forth, Moonton increasingly seemed like a "fringe player" within ByteDance's ecosystem.

Financial data shows that Moonton's recent years haven't been as glorious as before.

In 2023, it reported a net loss of 1.087 billion RMB; in 2024, revenue was 1.579 billion RMB, down 10.38% year-on-year. Although the loss narrowed to 118 million RMB, this was mainly due to reduced asset impairment provisions, with no substantive improvement in core profitability.

In Q1 2025, revenue grew 31.15% year-on-year to 485 million RMB, but the net profit margin was only 0.97%, down 4.38 percentage points year-on-year, and the gross margin dropped from 29.22% in the same period last year to 18.14%.

Some believe this performance led ByteDance to decide on a complete divestiture of Moonton, focusing resources on its core short video and AI businesses.

The acquirer, Saudi Arabia's Savvy, as a key platform for Middle Eastern capital to strategically deploy in the global gaming industry, values Moonton's mature operational experience in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere, as well as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang's massive user base, hoping to complete its global gaming industry layout through this acquisition.

For Moonton, if this deal goes through, the entry of Middle Eastern capital could bring new opportunities.

This article does not constitute any investment advice.