Puzzle & Dragons dev GungHo worth $9 billion

Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo is now worth $9 billion as the company’s stock rise took a dramatic rise on the announcement of new games.

As reported Serkantoto, GungHo is now listed as worth more than twice as much as mobile gaming rival DeNA, which has a market cap of $4.3 billion.

Gree meanwhile is worth $3 billion, while Zynga is listed at $2.6 billion.

GungHo’s value rose 15 per cent yesterday on the back of news that it was developing a DS version of free-to-play puzzle and RPG hybrid title Puzzle & Dragons for release this year, and the launch of iOS and Android spinoff Puzzle & Dragons Challenge.

An English version of the hit title has also been released on Android, with an iOS version expected later this year.

GungHo is thought to be making around $2 million a day from Puzzle & Dragons, success which convinced Japanese Telecomms giant Softbank into investing $265 million to gain a majority holding in the company at 58.5 per cent. The $250 million itself only paid for a 20 per cent increase in shares.

The popularity of Puzzle & Dragons has risen dramatically since January, with the userbase doubling by the end of March to 12 million, and shows little sign of abating.