Asmodee has sealed its second major acquisition in a week by agreeing to pay up to €250m for French social and party game publisher ATM Gaming.

The board game giant said buying ATM, the publisher of titles including Speed Bac/Quickstop, Mouton Mouton and Pili Pili, was predicated on social games being “the fastest growing category of the board games market”.

Asmodee expects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for social games of between 4% and 8% between 2025 and 2030, compared to about 4% for the wider board games market, citing mass market sales research for the US and ‘main European countries’ conducted by Arthur D Little.

ATM has scored rapid success since it was launched in 2018, with Asmodee saying the company has shown particular strength in building an “e-retailer distribution engine”, using advertising, advanced SEO and real-time analytics to help its titles rank highly in online stores such as Amazon.

The company’s standout title, Speed Bac from designer Rémy Wannerbroucq, has sold more than 3 million copies since it was launched in 2024, with about 2 million of those sales coming in 2025 alone.

Speaking in a press conference about the acquisition, Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said the fast-paced word game, which has also been published as Slingz, “shows clear potential to become an evergreen”.

Asmodee said the game managed to hold the number one spot in Amazon’s Toys & Games category across four different European countries during both Christmas 2024 and 2025, while other ATM games have also managed to seal high rankings.

Pili Pili, which has sold more than 300,000 copies since its July 2025 launch, was ranked second behind Speed Bac in Amazon’s Toys & Games category in France last Christmas, while Mouton Mouton, which has sold 200,000 copies since being launched last September, was ranked third.

That success has seen ATM grow from four co-founders with backgrounds across companies such as Meta, Deloitte and Johnson & Johnson to a team of more than 40 people, with its net sales CAGR more than doubling between 2023 and 2025 to reach about €34m last year.

Asmodee said it expects ATM to contribute at least €50m in net sales over the 2026/27 financial year, boosted by its new owner’s geographic reach and “know-how in operational efficiency”.

The company has agreed to pay €180m for ATM Gaming on a cash-free and debt-free basis, with another €70m paid in newly-issued Asmodee shares contingent on ATM’s future performance.

ATM is already established across France, Germany, Italy and Spain, Asmodee said, with “emerging” sales in countries including the US and UK, as well as in wider Europe and Latin America.

Koegler said a “key differentiator” for ATM was the company’s strength in e-retail, which has been their primary sales channel over the last three years. He added, “Their expertise in digital marketing and social media will also strengthen our go-to-market capabilities.”

Asmodee has distributed ATM titles since 2019, with about 10% of the company’s current sales made through the Asmodee network – mainly in Italy and Spain.

Koegler said, “Over time we expect to further integrate distribution within Asmodee. Geographically the combination is highly complementary.

“ATM Gaming is strong in Europe, while Exploding Kittens provides a strong foothold in the US. Together this creates a balanced platform with significant expansion potential across both regions, but also beyond.”

Exploding Kittens is among Asmodee’s current heavyweight hits in its party and social games portfolio, alongside other high-selling titles such as Dobble.

Koegler said in the company’s Q2 report last November that Asmodee had seen “good momentum” in its lower price-point products in the US mass market, singling out Exploding Kittens as a particularly strong performer in what he called a “challenging market”.

Expanding Horizons

A month earlier Asmodee continued its reignited expansion strategy by launching a new party games studio, Moodbox Games, as part of a push into the US mass market.

That strategy has seen Asmodee make five acquisitions in the past 12 months – including last week’s buyout of Japon Brand from CMON, anchoring the board game giant’s push into a “currently untapped market” for the company.

Its other recent acquisitions include picking up Zombicide, Cthulhu: Death May Die and Sheriff of Nottingham from CMON, which is attempting to recover from heavy losses over the past couple of years.

Asmodee announced in November 2024 that it was preparing to “reignite” its strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers and distributors, saying at the time that it had a pipeline of more than 20 acquisition opportunities.

The revived M&A process is yet to fully mirror Asmodee’s private equity-fuelled buying spree from the latter half of the 2010s, however, during which it acquired more than 40 companies and IPs.

That heavy expansion included the company adding more than 20 game studios, including Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, Lookout Games, Catan Studio and Z-Man Games.

Koegler was asked during the company’s quarterly results presentation last month whether the company was ready to make “more meaningful” acquisitions rather than small bolt-on deals.

He said in response, “Without being specific, the activity in the pipeline is in accordance with our plan. The smaller acquisitions are faster. IP acquisitions and asset deals are faster to execute. I’m satisfied.”

Speaking during the ATM acquisition press conference, he said, “Our M&A pipeline remains quite active. We are well positioned to continue executing on our strategy.”

Asmodee posted record sales of €524m during the last quarter of 2025 despite a slump in its US performance, with trading card game earnings in Europe acting as a driving force for the business.

The board game giant’s overall net sales jumped 22.2% across October to December 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier, with the performance of products it distributes for other companies surging more than 50%.

Net sales for games published by Asmodee itself fell almost 13% year-on-year in the quarter, however, weighed down by US net sales slumping 23% to €70.4m.

That drop saw the US fall behind both France and the UK in Q3 in terms of the company’s highest-performing countries for net sales, with France surging 47% year-on-year to over €111m, and the UK growing 41% to €82.7m.

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Asmodee has ramped up its reignited acquisition strategy by buying Japon Brand from CMON, anchoring the board game giant’s push into a “currently untapped market” for the company.

Japon Brand was instrumental in bringing Japanese designs such as Love Letter and Machi Koro to international markets, after being inspired by the surge in novel games from home-grown designers in the early 2000s.

The company will form the cornerstone of Asmodee’s new Japanese design studio, Nekuma, which will look to find games from local designers that it can release globally, as well as helping Asmodee bring its existing titles to Japanese players.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said, “Japan is one of the most creative and culturally influential markets in the world. With Nekuma and the integration of Japon Brand, we are building a long-term platform that connects Japanese creators with players globally.

“True to Asmodee’s entrepreneurial and bold DNA, this capital-light and agile initiative allows us to invest where creativity is thriving while positioning Asmodee for sustainable growth in Asia.”

Asmodee has grown into a board game publishing and distribution giant thanks to the heavy expansion the business undertook after being bought by private equity firm Eurazeo in 2014.

But the vast bulk of the company’s revenue comes from its operations in Europe, which accounted for more than 76% of its €1.6bn net sales in 2025.

The United States contributed about 13.1% of 2025 net sales, while the company’s entire ‘rest of the world’ net sales – covering every country outside of Europe or the Americas – made up less than 5%.

Asmodee currently has offices in South Korea, China and Taiwan following an expansion to the continent in 2021, with those teams having developed and published localised titles including Splendor Pokémon, Love Letter Cookie Run, Pokémon Chips, and Love Letter Fox Spirit, as well as making use of crowdfunding platforms across the region.

The company said Nekuma would “integrate and expand” that activity under interim head of studio Frederic Nugeron, Asmodee’s current global senior vice president – route to market for the Asia Pacific region.

It said Nekuma would lead game sourcing “to identify and support the most promising Japanese and Asian tabletop game designers”, while Asia-focused publishing will be managed by the company’s existing Korea team.

Nugeron said, “Our ambition with Nekuma is very concrete: be present on the ground, listen to designers, understand cultural nuances, and build trusted relationships within the Japanese ecosystem.

“By combining local expertise with Asmodee’s global reach, we can support creators more closely and bring distinctive Asian games to a worldwide audience.”

Asmodee said Japon Brand would continue to operate with its existing expertise and relationships, with “no impact” on current partnerships or contracts.

CMON Divestments Continue

The buyout comes less than two years after board game crowdfunding major CMON acquired Japon Brand, with a plan to keep it as an independent division that would use CMON’s infrastructure and reach to help it introduce games to the global market.

That investment followed a strong 2023 for CMON, in which its net profit jumped more than 35% amid a hefty drop in its sales-associated costs.

But the company has faced a punishing financial situation since, posting losses of $3m across 2024 and nearly $7m for the first half of 2025 – figures which dwarf the overall $4.2m profit it had managed to make over the previous nine years combined.

As well as laying off staff and halting new game development and campaign launches, CMON has been attempting to recover by selling a string of its most lucrative IPs – including its most famous and profitable title, Zombicide, and Cthulhu: Death May Die, both of which were bought by Asmodee.

Asmodee continued its acquisitions of CMON games last month by picking up bluffing and set collection game Sheriff of Nottingham, which CMON had previously bought from Brazilian publisher Galapagos Jogos in 2016.

The board game giant announced in November 2024 that it was preparing to “reignite” its strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers and distributors, saying at the time that it had a pipeline of more than 20 acquisition opportunities.

But the revived M&A process is yet to fully mirror Asmodee’s private equity-fuelled buying spree from the latter half of the 2010s, during which it acquired more than 40 companies and IPs.

That heavy expansion included the company adding more than 20 game studios, including Days of Wonder, Fantasy Flight Games, Lookout Games, Catan Studio and Z-Man Games.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler was asked during the company’s quarterly results presentation last month whether the company was ready to make “more meaningful” acquisitions rather than small bolt-on deals.

He said in response, “Without being specific, the activity in the pipeline is in accordance with our plan. The smaller acquisitions are faster. IP acquisitions and asset deals are faster to execute. I’m satisfied.”

Other expansion activity since Asmodee announced its M&A plan has included the company launching a new party games studio, Moodbox Games, as part of a push into the US mass market.

It also recently launched a dedicated kids-focused brand, Asmodee Kids, in preparation for releasing a slate of re-worked, simpler and shorter versions of some of its most popular titles.

Asmodee posted record sales of €524m during the last quarter of 2025 despite a slump in its US performance, with trading card game earnings in Europe acting as a driving force for the business.

The board game giant’s overall net sales jumped 22.2% across October to December 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier, with the performance of products it distributes for other companies surging more than 50%.

Net sales for games published by Asmodee itself fell almost 13% year-on-year in the quarter, however, weighed down by US net sales slumping 23% to €70.4m.

That drop saw the US fall behind both France and the UK in Q3 in terms of the company’s highest-performing countries for net sales, with France surging 47% year-on-year to over €111m, and the UK growing 41% to €82.7m.

The post Asmodee makes Asia expansion push by buying CMON’s Japon Brand, launching new studio Nekuma first appeared on .

Asmodee posted record sales of €524m during the last quarter of 2025 despite a slump in its US performance, with trading card game earnings in Europe acting as a driving force for the business.

The board game giant’s overall net sales jumped 22.2% across October to December 2025 compared to the same period a year earlier, with the performance of products it distributes for other companies surging more than 50%.

Net sales for games published by Asmodee itself fell almost 13% year-on-year in the quarter, however, weighed down by US net sales slumping 23% to €70.4m.

That drop saw the US fall behind both France and the UK in Q3 in terms of the company’s highest-performing countries for net sales, with France surging 47% year-on-year to over €111m, and the UK growing 41% to €82.7m.

The US had previously outperformed all other countries for Q3 net sales for at least the past two years, Asmodee’s quarterly sales results show. Prior to that, individual country data for Asmodee was not publicly released while under former owner Embracer Group.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler said in the company’s latest quarterly report that successful TCG releases in Europe across Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering and One Piece had driven the record Q3 results.

He added that lower sell-in to larger retailer for some of its own products had contributed to the sinking US result in Q3, despite saying that “overall consumer demand on our products remained stable”.

The company’ chief financial officer, Andrea Gasperini, added in the company’s Q3 earnings call that “unfavorable FX exchange rate exposure since the beginning of the year” was also to blame, as was a “normalising” of the performance of Asmodee’s own TCG Star Wars Unlimited compared to its launch year of 2024.

That situation echoed Ravensburger’s assessment of its flagship trading card game Disney Lorcana last month, with performance falling following an explosive start on its August 2023 launch that had quickly made the title a “long-term pillar” of the company’s products.

Koegler added during the Q3 earnings call, “Let’s remember also that the beginning of the year has been quite shaken up in everybody’s supply strategies – ours, the retailers – by the various announcements on the tariffs. And I think that it has been a constantly evolving situation where I’m quite proud of how the teams reacted.

“Once we’ve said that, of course, let’s not underestimate the impact of foreign exchange, which is quite material in the decrease. And secondly, what’s important to look at beyond our own sell-in performance, which is what we sell to retailers, is the sell-out.

“As I did say we have, since the beginning of the year, overperformed the market, and even in Q3 it was a quarter for the Christmas period that was very much focused on lower price point products. We captured very strong growth with Exploding Kittens and did have some headwinds on higher price point products.

“But I would say in the grand scheme of things: first of all, it’s fine, our portfolio is diversified, and secondly, it’s limited to the US, so we should expect some better trends in the future.”

When asked in the Q3 earnings call how confident he was in Asmodee’s own studios’ ability to return to growth, Koegler said, “Yes, we had some negative developments on the games, but if you look at the sellout, which is the sales to consumers in the US, for instance, the market was relatively flat, and our sellout was in line with this, which means that we still have positive outlooks for the future.

“Our performance was impacted, especially by, I would say, some inventory positions and retailers’ purchase strategies. Now, if we look forward, first of all, the vast majority of our revenue is coming from existing titles. That’s the first thing that’s important, and we are constantly working on engaging consumers on those.

“You saw the recent announcements on Catan and Ticket to Ride with Netflix, all of this with the objective to further increase brand awareness and visibility, and in the future, generate additional sales.

“If we look at some of the products we’re looking forward to in terms of new releases for next year, we have announced the new LEGO game in the Ninjago franchise being released the same time as the Ninjago anniversary.

“We have Azul Kids coming out. We have Dino Picnic, we have the future sets of Star Wars Unlimited. We have a refresh of Ticket to Ride Europe. So I would say that it will be still an active year.

“What’s important, if you look back at the historical performance of Asmodee, is that some years it’s strongly driven by trading cards, and in the other years, usually when trading cards are less strong, you have a relay that’s coming from board games.”

Asmodee also revealed in its Q3 results that it had bought bluffing and set collection game Sheriff of Nottingham from CMON – its third IP purchase from the company in the past eight months.

CMON’s IP sales have been part of its ongoing drive to combat the huge losses the business has chalked up in the past couple of years.

Asmodee kicked off its reignited strategy of buying up smaller board game publishers, distributors and IPs in June last year by acquiring CMON’s flagship IP Zombicide, a series which had raised more than $40m on Kickstarter since its 2012 launch.

Asmodee CEO Thomas Koegler was asked during the company’s quarterly results presentation whether the company was ready to make “more meaningful” acquisitions rather than small bolt-on deals.

He said, “Without being specific, the activity in the pipeline is in accordance with our plan. The smaller acquisitions are faster. IP acquisitions and asset deals are faster to execute. I’m satisfied.”

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