China Clears Savvy Games Group’s $6B Moonton Purchase Without Conditions

China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has unconditionally approved the acquisition of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer Moonton by the Saudi holding company behind Savvy Games Group, clearing a regulatory step for a deal reported at more than $6 billion that ByteDance agreed to in March but has not yet closed.

The case appears on SAMR’s list of mergers approved without conditions between Oct. 26 and Nov. 1, published Nov. 6. It names the acquirer as Saudi Electronic Games Holding Company and the targets as Moonton Holdings Limited and Shanghai Moonton Technology Co., Ltd., and records Oct. 29 as the date the review was completed.

Savvy does not appear by name in the notice. The Canadian trademark registration for “Savvy Games Group” lists its owner as Saudi Electronic Gaming Holding Company, based in Riyadh. Savvy is wholly owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

Savvy confirmed in March that it had signed an agreement to buy Moonton from ByteDance for more than $6 billion, GamesBeat reported, with Moonton CEO Zhang Yunfan and his management team to remain in place after closing. “This acquisition directly supports Savvy’s purpose to enable prosperity and connection through play for generations to come,” Savvy CEO Brian Ward said in a statement, according to GamesBeat.

Skadden, which advised ByteDance on the sale, describes the purchase price as “reported to be above $6 billion.” Neither company has disclosed the exact figure.

GamesBeat reported in March that the deal was expected to close “in the coming months.” Nearly eight months later, it has not.

The approval is the latest step in a sale first reported as talks in February at a valuation of $6 billion to $7 billion, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate. ByteDance bought Moonton in 2021 for about $4 billion, PocketGamer.biz reported. The TikTok owner said in 2023 that it would restructure its gaming business.

Moonton has more than 110 million monthly players, more than 1.5 billion installs of Mobile Legends and more than 2,000 employees, according to GamesBeat. The game’s core markets are in Southeast Asia, led by Indonesia and the Philippines, and its M-series world championship is set to leave Asia for the first time with M8 in Türkiye, as previously reported by The Esports Advocate. Savvy already owns 30% of Asian tournament operator Hero Esports, according to GamesBeat.

The acquisition matters most for what it puts under one owner.

Once the deal closes, PIF’s holdings would include the publisher of Mobile Legends, which runs the game’s professional leagues and its world championship; ESL FACEIT Group, the tournament operator Savvy owns; Electronic Arts, which a PIF-led consortium took private in August for $55 billion; and the Esports Foundation, which runs the Esports World Cup. Mobile Legends is already on that event’s program: the MLBB Mid Season Cup at this year’s Esports World Cup carried a $3 million prize pool.

For the teams in Moonton’s leagues, the counterparty on their league agreements and tournament circuit would become a subsidiary of the same state fund that pays for the Esports World Cup and owns ESL FACEIT Group.

Still unknown are the final purchase price, the expected closing date, which approvals remain outstanding, whether Moonton’s esports operations will stay independent or be coordinated with ESL FACEIT Group, and whether Moonton’s Shanghai headquarters and Chinese operating company will remain unchanged after the sale.

The approval removes the most visible obstacle to the sale. The larger question is whether Savvy runs Moonton as a standalone publisher, as its management pledge suggests, or uses it to tie one of mobile esports’ biggest ecosystems more closely to the Saudi-funded event calendar.