ByteDance Sells Mobile Legends Developer Moonton to Savvy Games for $6 Billion

ByteDance agreed to sell its games unit Moonton to Savvy Games Group for $6 billion, confirming a divestiture that had been widely anticipated since Reuters first flagged advanced negotiations in February. The deal values Moonton at $6 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, and the transaction is expected to be finalized in the near future, Moonton CEO Zhang Yunfan said in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg.

Moonton Technology is the developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, which remains one of the most successful mobile titles in the world. As of March 2026, the game has surpassed 1.5 billion total installations and continues to engage over 110 million monthly active users. It is particularly dominant in Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where it has evolved into a primary cultural and esports phenomenon. The studio's catalog extends beyond its flagship MOBA to titles including Magic Chess: Go Go, Watcher of Realms, and Aircraft.

Zhang Yunfan indicated in his internal memo that the transaction would be finalized in the near future, and that Savvy will leave the company's management in place while employees will be offered incentive programs. The global studio was established in 2014 and currently has over 2,000 employees working at offices across Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Latin America, and China.

The sale allows ByteDance to realize a $2 billion profit on its initial investment, having acquired Moonton for about $4 billion in 2021. That return comes as ByteDance pivots hard away from games entirely: the sale could mark a continued shift toward artificial intelligence after earlier gaming initiatives struggled to gain traction against established competitors. The company has since reduced its exposure to gaming, including scaling back its Nuverse division, while increasing focus on developing AI models and chatbot technologies. Nuverse had published notable titles including Marvel Snap and Ragnarok X: Next Generation before ByteDance shuttered it.

Savvy Games is a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian sovereign Public Investment Fund (PIF). The acquisition adds one of mobile gaming's most-played properties to a portfolio that has been expanding at a startling pace. Savvy Games Group acquired mobile developer Scopely for $4.9 billion in 2023 and subsequently integrated the gaming assets of Niantic in a $3.5 billion deal in 2025. PIF is also involved in the ongoing $55 billion take-private acquisition of Electronic Arts, which was approved by shareholders in December 2025 and is expected to close by June 2026.

Savvy Games CEO Brian Ward said in a press release: "This acquisition directly supports Savvy's purpose to enable prosperity and connection through play for generations to come, and our mission to drive long-term growth and innovation in games and esports."

The acquisition of Moonton is a central component of Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" initiative, which aims to transform the kingdom into a global hub for gaming and esports. Savvy's goal is to help create 39,000 game jobs in Saudi Arabia by 2030, and adding a studio with 110 million monthly active users concentrated across Southeast Asia gives that ambition a serious foothold in the world's fastest-growing mobile gaming region.

For the Mobile Legends community, the practical message from Zhang Yunfan's memo is straightforward: the management team that built MLBB into a billion-download juggernaut stays in place, and the new owner has every financial incentive to keep the ranked queues, the MPL circuits, and the hero pipeline running.