The problem
App stores overflow with disposable match-3 puzzlers: thin art, punishing ads, and developers who stop updating months after launch. Players who want a polished, long-lived casual game have almost nowhere to turn.
How it works
Dream Games builds free-to-play royal-themed puzzlers — clear boards to restore King Robert’s castle in Royal Match, or fight across new lands in Royal Kingdom. Teams, seasonal events and constant content drops keep daily habits sticky, and players pay for boosters, extra moves and cosmetics rather than watching forced ads.
Pain points
Shallow clones, ad fatigue, and favourite games left to rot without updates.
Business model
In-app purchases (boosters, lives, season passes) carry the revenue, tuned by aggressive live-ops; Royal Match became the leading global puzzle game by revenue on that engine.
Challenges
The ~$5B valuation rests on two titles, so retention is existential; paid user acquisition gets pricier every year; and success has made Istanbul’s game talent a bidding war.
Funding
- Raised: $255M Series C led by Index Ventures with Makers Fund, IVP, BlackRock, Kora and Balderton Capital (GamesIndustry.biz, Jan 2022) — the third round in a single year after a $50M Series A in March 2021.
- Valuation: ~$5B in the May 2025 CVC transaction (Reuters, via SRN News), with debt from Blackstone-managed funds.
Latest — May 2025
On 1 May 2025 Dream Games and CVC announced that CVC will buy out the early venture backers and become the studio’s sole equity partner to fund new games, in a deal valuing the company at around $5B; closing was expected in Q3 2025 subject to regulatory approvals.