PitchBook dives deep into gaming VC trends, predicting a closing funding gap between content and development startups in 2024.
On the heels of PitchBook’s Gaming VC market report, the firm has published a deep dive into market segment trends. Echoing its prior report, the firm expects 2023’s muted venture capital funding levels — $4.3 billion or 72% less than 2022 — to continue into 2024. However, the types of startups and investment sources are changing.Comparing games VC market segments
Over the last twelve months, 56% (294) of closed funding deals went to content developers, followed by developer tools and services. Publishers, developers and studios comprised the largest subsegment with 190 closed deals.
While content is king in terms of closed deals, development startups have a head-start in building enterprise value. Per PitchBook data, the median pre-money valuation of development startups totaled $35.0 million. This was followed by followed by access ($32.2 million) startups. Meanwhile, content finished second lowest at $17.5 million.
Zooming in on subsegments, technology services ($475.0 million) had by far the highest median pre-money valuation. This is a massive step up for the subsegment since PitchBook’s last deep dive, but a few high-value deals inflated the subsegment’s total.
