The final numbers are in. 2021 was a record investment year for the video game industry, with roughly $85 billion in deals. The figure, three times greater than 2020 could be dwarfed this year, as over $80 billion in M&A have already occurred by late January.

In the lockdown induced year of 2020, video game use and spending on content, hardware and accessories hit records. It was expected that once lockdowns were eased, spending in the sector would fall. That has not happened.

Kiss the video game industry’s $70+ billion in total 2021 deals goodbye. We’re less than three weeks into 2022 and we may have already set a new annual dollar-value record for video game industry mergers, acquisitions, and investment in the space.

The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held January 5 through January 8 in Las Vegas, Nevada, just wrapped up, and was dominated by video games and video game-tech this year.

Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) will acquire all outstanding shares of Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) for $9.86 per share, a massive 64% premium over Friday’s closing price of $6.00. The deal will pay Zynga shareholders $6.36 in TTWO stock and $3.50 in cash for every share of ZNGA held.

Jack Tretton, the former CEO of PlayStation, has announced a new $225 million special acquisitions company (SPAC) focusing on the video gaming industry. The SPAC, called PowerUp Acquisitions, will raise $225 million at $10 a share, offering 22.5 million shares.

2021 has been a banner year for the video game industry. There were record investment, record mergers and acquisitions and record public listings. 2022 promises to be the best year yet for both the industry and its investors. As we approach the new year, here are some of the defining moments of 2021.

The company, backed by Tencent and Goldman Sachs, says it will concentrate this capital in gaming studios who develop blockchain-based mobile games. Blockchain technology, especially assets like NFTs, are expected to revolutionize and incentivize gamers.

With a current valuation of over $300 billion, the industry is expected to be worth nearly $600 billion by just 2028. As we enter 2022, some of the biggest winners in this continued boom will be smaller video game developers, publishers, patent holders and investors, especially those investors who place themselves in position with a company that could be the target of an acquisition.

The relatively new market is one of the fastest growing subsectors in the video game industry. Hundreds of thousands of gamers currently compete in eSports on some level, with over 380 million spectators who watch competitions both online and at live tournaments.