ByteDance is reportedly gearing up to sell Mobile Legends: Bang Bang developer Moonton, years after acquiring the company.
In a report by Reuters, sources familiar with the matter claimed that the sale marks ByteDance aiming to focus more on its core businesses, though did not clarify which specifically.
They did, however, mention that at least one Saudi-based company was interested in a potential acquisition of the game developer.
The report clarifies that any deals are still in an early stage- meaning that nothing is set in stone quite yet for the company.
ByteDance has not officially commented on the potential sale.
It looks as though ByteDance is moving away from software in general: the company had previously closed its in-house studio 101 Studio, as well as cutting game-related jobs at subsidiary Pico.
The Popularity of Mobile Legends
Moonton was first acquired by ByteDance in 2021, in a 4 billion USD attempt by the company to diversify its revenue streams.
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is arguably one of the biggest mobile games, with over 2 million downloads in the past 30 days according to AppMagic.
The game has also reportedly made over 10 billion USD in the same time frame, with a majority of its spending coming from Indonesia, the United States, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
Its biggest competitors come in the form of Tencent’s Honor Of Kings which regularly tops mobile game revenue globally, as well as League of Legends: Wild Rift.
That being said, while both its major competitors sport multiple successful entries, the same can’t really be said for Mobile Legends- its sister app Mobile Legends: Adventure sports a much smaller entry with only a 1.5 million USD in the past month.