The biggest gaming deals of 2026 are really AI deals

I don’t necessarily consider myself a gamer, but I have sunk hundreds of hours of my life into Skyrim. 

So, it follows perhaps that I keep an eye on the state of the gaming industry—a famously tough business, driven by hits and weighed down by high development costs. It’s also a space where success in one era doesn’t promise success in another, as evidenced by the challenges facing Microsoft’s Xbox, which my colleague Sebastian Herrera has reported on. 

I pondered all this looking at PitchBook’s gaming VC data for Q3 2026, and it’s a mixed picture. On the surface, deal value year-to-date is $13.7 billion, across 430 deals, the data says. Early stage VC was especially active, comprising 54.5% of deal value for the third quarter—and that’s up massively from, say, 14.1% in Q1. 

Now, a few less promising data points: Deal value at the venture growth-level dropped to $269.4 million in Q3, a stark decline from the $2.3 billion of Q2. Additionally, content is not king: Content-focused startups drew limited........

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