May 2026 Gaming and Adtech News Recap

This month brought major moves in adtech, shifting monetization strategies in mobile gaming, and a landmark venue change for esports. Here’s a roundup of May’s key developments.

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GAMING

Industry:

Istanbul-based Grand Games, the studio behind Mobile Sort and Car Match, secured a $70m Series B led by Balderton Capital’s Growth Fund. The round brings total funding to $103m and reflects sustained investor confidence in Turkey’s mobile gaming pipeline.

Dream Games reversed its long-standing “no in-game ads” positioning by rolling out interstitial and rewarded ads in Royal Match on May 11. The move, which triggered a spike in 1-star App Store reviews, is widely seen as a response to the growing dominance of hybrid monetization models.

Games:

The 2026 Esports World Cup has confirmed the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles as its new venue following the event’s relocation from Riyadh. Over 2,000 players from 200+ clubs across 100 countries will compete for a $75 million prize pool between July 6 and August 23.

ADTECH

InMobi announced the acquisition of MobileAction, an AI-powered platform specialising in Apple Ads and App Store Optimization. The deal expands InMobi’s iOS advertising capabilities and complements its broader agentic commerce platform, Glance.

Sensor Tower has acquired AppMagic. AppMagic will serve as Sensor Tower’s dedicated SMB offering, expanding its reach beyond its existing enterprise client base of 2,500+ companies. The acquisition positions Sensor Tower to serve indie developers and smaller gaming studios alongside its enterprise analytics and PC/Console intelligence products.

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