Editor's note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the founder-CEO of Hutch (within MTG) was asked to step back. This is not accurate, as he will remain at the company as executive chairman, and he himself endorses the change of direction. The mistake has been removed. We apologize to the entire MTG team for the error.

Gaming studio roll ups have fallen out of favor in the past few years, weighed down by a few bad apples that failed to execute, overpaid for acquisitions, and took on excessive leverage.
While its peers lick their wounds, Modern Times Group (MTG) is forging ahead with its roll up strategy, most recently striking a deal to acquire Plarium, the maker ofRaid: Shadow Legends, for $620M. This deal is set to double the company’s revenue, positioning MTG as a top 10 mobile gaming company in the West.

Despite its size, MTG continues to fly under the radar. In today’s digest, we’ll explore its journey so far, discuss where it stands today, and offer thoughts on where it can go from here.
Company History
MTG originated as part of several investments made by a Scandinavian broadcaster looking to transform itself into a global digital player. The company made its first foray into gaming in 2015 when it acquired ESL Gaming’s parent company Turtle Entertainment, as well as DreamHack, to form what was then the world’s largest esports business. In 2016, MTG doubled down on gaming by acquiring InnoGames, known for its flagship 4x game Forge of Empires. In 2017, it also brought Kongregate into the fold, a developer and browser-based game distribution platform.
The company then realized its esports and gaming portfolio was overshadowed by its declining traditional media business, so it spun out its legacy assets in 2019 to focus on its two promising new ventures.
MTG’s buy-and-build strategy was shaped by the early success of the InnoGames acquisition, which continued to grow profitably while operating as an independent founder-led business unit.

MTG looked to acquire studios with strong IP and granted their leadership operational independence while providing access to MTG’s finances and shared expertise. This resulted in three key acquisitions between 2020 and 2021:
- Hutch, a developer of simulation-focused racing games founded by former PlayStation execs.
- Ninja Kiwi, creator of the popular Bloons Tower Defense series.
- PlaySimple, a word game developer founded by a former Zynga team.
Recognizing its growing gaming business had limited synergies with its less profitable esports enterprise, MTG explored ways to separate the two businesses. In 2022, MTG found a buyer in Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, which acquired ESL for $1B. This sale delivered a 2.5 times return on MTG’s original 2015 investment and provided the company with a hefty war chest to accelerate its acquisition strategy.
Rather than diving headfirst into M&A, MTG returned 40% of the $875M net proceeds it received from the deal to shareholders. It also looked inward to find best practices across its acquired studios to create a playbook for future acquisitions. Those learnings were formalized as the "Flow" platform, MTG’s internal tool designed to improve business intelligence, user acquisition, adtech, and drive cross-promotion across the company.
In late 2023, the company purchased a 70% stake in Snowprint Studios, a rapidly scaling — but not yet profitable — mobile gaming studio for $41M (before earnouts). It also streamlined its portfolio by divesting Kongregate.
In late 2024, MTG struck a deal to acquire Plarium for $620M, for an expected EV/EBITDA multiple of less than 4.5 (before earnouts). The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025, and the market agreed it was a favorable deal for MTG, rewarding its shareholders with a 19% bump the week after the announcement.
Where Does MTG Stand Today?
Before we dive into the implications of the Plarium acquisition, let’s take stock of where the company stands today.
MTG, excluding Plarium, consists of five independently operated game studios across four key genres: word games, strategy and simulation, racing, and tower defense. They are supported by a central corporate team driving M&A, the Flow platform, and capital allocation across the portfolio.

The biggest challenge the company faces today is its struggle to find organic growth within its portfolio.

The key drivers include:
- Ad revenue headwinds at PlaySimple. From its acquisition in 2021 and throughout 2023, PlaySimple was a standout in MTG’s portfolio, growing at high double-digits year-over-year. However, in late 2023, PlaySimple — which relies on in-app-advertising to generate about 80% of its revenue — was hit by Google’s shift to real-time-bidding and saw a drop-off in eCPMs for its ad inventory. (Historically, the company relied on its own ad waterfall, which brought in above-market rates.) PlaySimple represents about 40% of MTG’s standalone revenue (around 20% including Plarium) and is still adjusting to this, with revenues in the latest quarter down 12% year-over-year.
- InnoGames hit by ATT changes and no new games. Launched in 2012, Forge of Empires still drives most of InnoGames’ revenues. For context, InnoGames as a whole made up around 25% of MTG’s standalone revenues. While the game’s longevity is impressive, it has struggled to acquire new users since the ATT changes and has been scaling back UA over the past few years. As such, the company depends on extracting more from old users and has seen revenues decline year-over-year. New game launches have also fallen flat, leaving the company in a tough spot. In response to its poor performance, InnoGames let go of 75 (approximately 20%) of its employees in 2023.
- Hutch’s“small market” issue. Hutch, which delivered about 10% of MTG’s standalone revenues last year, is primarily driven by F1 Clash and Top Drives — two games that occupy a unique management simulation niche within the racing category. When MTG acquired Hutch in late 2020, MTG believed it could lend it InnoGames’ UA expertise and provide funding to scale Hutch’s titles. Unfortunately, whether because of ATT or other factors, the ceiling was lower than expected, and Hutch’s flagship games have been flat or declining over the past few years.
Where Does MTG Go from Here?
Reigniting organic growth will be one of the biggest value drivers for the company. Early green shoots include the company ramping up user acquisition spending at PlaySimple after slowing down in H1 2024 as it reacted to Google’s real-time-bidding changes. The lapsing of pre-RTB quarters and the recent investments in UA should support growth in future months. Snowprint’s Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus turn-based strategy game, representing approximately 5% of the company’s combined sales (including Plarium), has also been scaling healthily.

The other key value driver for MTG will be the successful integration of Plarium. Success will be defined on two key vectors:
- Continued live ops execution to maintain, and hopefully grow, Plarium’s top titles — all of which are over four years old.
- Realizing synergies from the acquisition to drive value at MTG’s current portfolio.

Regarding live ops, much of the acquisition’s performance will depend on Raid: Shadow Legends, which makes up about 70% of Plarium’s revenues (37% of the combined business). While the game’s revenues have been flat for the past few years, its active user base has been shrinking as it ages, so finding ways to reinvigorate the user base will be critical for growth at MTG.

The second and equally important part of the integration is realizing synergies from Plarium’s D2C platform and user acquisition tooling. The 100-plus person team maintaining these tools will add muscle to MTG’s Flow platform and can drive best practices across the MTG portfolio. The D2C platform is particularly exciting because it could provide a direct uplift to MTG’s existing mobile IAP purchases, which make up roughly half of standalone revenues (pre-Plarium).
Conclusion
2025 will be a pivotal year for MTG as the current iteration of the company navigates its largest acquisition to date while looking to drive growth across its existing portfolio. Although the company will still have more than $150M cash on hand, it will likely be focused on execution and look to pay off its debt and outstanding earnouts (roughly $700M; 2.5 times its EBITDA).
Successful execution will be key to securing a revaluation of the business – which currently trades at 5.6 times its EBITDA — making most M&A opportunities dilutive. Ultimately, if MTG’s shares continue to trade down, it could put the company in play for a buyout as one of a few scaled-but-not-too-big mobile players ($780M market capitalization).
Zooming out, MTG’s management deserves recognition for transforming an offshoot of a legacy media company into one of the top 10 Western mobile gaming developers. We’re hopeful this management team can prove that the 1+1 of MTG and Plarium can be greater than the sum of its parts and put the company on a firmer trajectory.
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