Electronic Arts is acquiring Playdemic, the developer behind mobile hit Golf Clash, from WarnerMedia for $1.4 billion in cash.
Founded in 2010, Playdemic is best known for Golf Clash, which is one of the leading mobile games in the US and UK and has more than 80 million downloads globally.
According to Sensor Tower, Golf Clash has generated more than $780 million to date from player spending and picked up 58 million downloads across the App Store and Google Play. In 2020, the title accumulated approximately $185 million in gross revenue in 2020 and racked up about 5.3 million first-time downloads.
Regarding the Playdemic deal, David Haddad, President of Warner Bros. Games, said the following: “While we have great respect for the Playdemic team, our decision to divest is a part of our overall strategy to build games based on Warner Bros. storied franchises.”
For EA, the acquisition falls under its “strategy to expand our sports portfolio and accelerate our growth in mobile.” Back in February, EA announced the acquisition of another mobile game studio, Glu Mobile.
And it’s not just EA among video games giants that’s embracing mobile. Activision is also building a new in-house studio that will develop AAA mobile games.