The video game industry saw $3.5 billion in investment for the first three months of this year.

That's according to research outfit Digital Development Management (DDM), which reports that there were 243 deals made during this time. It's a substantial drop year-on-year, though the company says that this is due to Roblox's $12.8 billion IPO in early 2021.

The biggest single investment of this period was the $450 million in early stage investment that NFT and MMO firm Yuga Labs landed in March. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that crypto and blockchain tech continues to be the headliner for spending given that it is very much in vogue with investors now. DDM reckons that 48 per cent – or $1.7 billion – of total investment in games during the first quarter of 2022 was spent in the blockchain space.

M&A activity within games, meanwhile, came in at $7.9 billion. Of this figure, 30 per cent were PC and console companies. The largest M& activity was the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund snapping up a seven per cent stake in Nexon in February, a deal worth $1.7 billion.