It was a mixed week for gaming stocks: 29 of the 59 companies we track rose, and the median move was 0.0%. AdTech stood out, down 6.8%, the most of the four indices that fell. AppLovin fell on every one of the five sessions, from $310.75 on Sep 25 to $268.22, in the same week a San Francisco court turned down its request for a temporary restraining order against Unity’s Ad Quality SDK. The fight itself isn’t over: it continues in private arbitration. Year to date, only Large Cap PC & Console is still in the green, at +3.5%.
The catalysts behind the week’s largest moves are below.
What moved them
NEXON (-13.8%) A special dividend of $2.64 (JPY 415) per share went ex on Sep 29, and that day the shares dropped $2.82 (JPY 442.5) to $16.71 (JPY 2,625.5). Add the dividend back and the weekly fall is about 0.5%.
AppLovin (-13.7%) The court declined its request to restrain Unity’s Ad Quality SDK, and the shares fell more than 5% premarket. Wedbush also flagged stronger Unity bids in MAX auctions.
NCSOFT (+13.7%) Its MMORPG Aion 2 opened global early access on Steam on Sep 30, topped the global sales chart, came first in 12 countries and peaked at 171,530 concurrent players.
Digital Bros (-12.3%) Its FY2025/26 results on Sep 24 booked $21.3m (EUR 18.7m) of write-offs on three cancelled games and guided to lower revenue this year. The shares then fell on all five sessions.
Remedy Entertainment (-9.5%) Inderes cut its rating from Buy to Accumulate, while raising its price target to $26.17 (EUR 23.00) from $23.89 (EUR 21.00). It noted Control Resonant’s Steam peak of about 41,000 players.
Also in the top five, without a catalyst in the deck: Kakao Games (+12.4%), G5 Entertainment (+9.2%), NACON (+8.2%) and Modern Times Group (+5.5%) among gainers, and PulluP Entertainment (-9.3%) among decliners.
Also this week
EU regulators move on in-game currencies. On Sep 30, EU consumer regulators opened coordinated actions against nine games companies over in-game currencies. King, Supercell, Mojang and Riot Games are among them.
The week’s largest deal. General Intuition raised $220m at a $6.2B valuation, 2.7 times what it was valued at in June. The price rests on Medal’s library of gameplay clips.
Xbox is not for sale. That’s what Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told The New York Times, adding that the company will look at the right partnerships and operating model.
Steam rethinks discounts. Valve paused curated placements in Steam’s Discounts and Events section and is using personalized recommendations instead. In tests, they showed customers 10 times more games a day.
Keep reading
AppLovin v Unity, step by step: what AppLovin alleges, what it asked the court for, what the court decided and how both stocks moved.
PC/Console Pulse, with Alinea Analytics: revenue, copies and Twitch hours for six titles, which ones made more money than buzz, and a closer look at Gears of War: E-Day and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
Indices, week and year to date: where all six InvestGame gaming indices stand.
Deals of the week: all 14 transactions, from General Intuition’s $220m round to Bose buying FMOD developer Firelight.
The full 16-page deck: including deep dives on General Intuition and the EU’s actions over in-game currencies.