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Digi-Capital’s report shows which Asian companies have scored big time, and which kinds of companies are poised for enormous growth – and failure.

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2014 saw a record $24 billion worth of video game company exits worldwide in 2014, $15 billion in acquisitions and $9 billion in initial public offerings.

“Asia accounted for over half the games IPOs in 2014, and has dominated games IPOs for the last five years,” says Tim Merel, managing capital of Digi-Capital, the research and consulting firm that published the report. That includes Candy Crush Saga maker King Digital Entertainment, which raised $500 million in March 2014.

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Asia is also the number one games market in terms of revenue. Digi-Capital predicts it will reach $45 billion in revenue by 2018, out of a total $100 billion worldwide. China, Japan, and South Korea will drive that growth.

Newzoo reports Asia’s gaming revenues currently stand at around $36.8 billion, 45 percent of the global $81.5 billion figure.

Squeeze on the mid-tier

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Digi-Capital says major gaming corporations and small indie studios will thrive in the coming years, but mid-tier companies will feel the squeeze.

Corporates already have hit games with lots of users generating lots of cash. They can use that cash to invest in marketing and grow their infrastructure, which in turn leads to more players and higher cash flow. Indie studios don’t have those scale advantages, but neither do they have big staffs to pay or high infrastructure costs.

Mid-tier companies, however, don’t have any major hit games yet, but still have to shell out for their larger staffs, marketing, and infrastructure. On top of that, the large corporates typically don’t want to acquire mid-tier ones because they don’t want to incur all those costs. Small indie studios are in a much better position to get acquired. China and the U.S. are the top acquirers.

For these reasons, the report says mid-tier gaming companies struggle to raise investment. Digi-Capital recommends they either up the ante and get big or slim down to survive.