In a shocking announcement, Microsoft has acquired Zenimax Media for $7.5 billion. It's a huge acquisition, and the second-most expensive in video game history. The reverberations of this acquisition will be felt for years to come, and it's a major win for Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S. It's also nearly double the $4.05 billion Disney paid for Lucasfilm and Star Wars in 2012.

Zenimax Media is the holding company for various video game studios, including Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studios, and id Software. By acquiring Zenimax Media, Microsoft now owns some of the highest-grossing video game IPs of all time, including DOOM, Wolfenstein, The Elder Scrolls, Dishonored, and Fallout. It also effectively ends their possible exclusives drought on Xbox Series X and S.

Related: The Elder Scrolls 6 Likely WON'T Be On PS5

It may be a bit shocking that Microsoft acquired Zenimax Media for such a steep price, especially considering Disney's Lucasfilm deal. At the time, the Lucasfilm buyout was Disney's fourth largest ever, and it most famously gave the company the rights to Star Wars. Since then, Disney has been busy with its new Star Wars canon, adding in movies, TV shows, comics, books, and video games. So why does Microsoft's buying Zenimax Media almost double Disney's acquisition of Star Wars, one of the most successful and popular movie franchises of all time?

Why Zenimax Media Sold For More Than Lucasfilm

Microsoft's acquisition of Zenimax Media is huge, and it was a genius move to announce the deal the day before Xbox Series X and S pre-orders went live. However, the company's price tag puts it at almost double the amount Disney paid for Lucasfilm and Star Wars. In fact, Zenimax's price of $7.5 billion is much more comparable to Disney's buyout of Pixar, which was $7.6 billion in 2006. So, are Zenimax properties really worth more than Lucasfilm and Star Wars? Here's what the numbers have to say.

By 2012, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the company had stopped releasing new Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. Royalties and merchandising sales were still good, but Lucasfilm's recent release of Red Tails was a flop, and the animated Clone Wars movie in 2008 made about $68 million (which is significantly less than the prequel Star Wars films, which made hundreds of millions of dollars each). At the time of Disney's acquisition, Lucasfilm was past its prime.

That's not the case for Zenimax Media, however. Titles like Elder Scrolls and DOOM are just as popular as they always were, perhaps even more so, with new titles expected in the near future. Skyrim alone has made over $450 million, and that's simply one game that Microsoft now owns.

It may seem odd that Zenimax Media sold for more than Lucasfilm and Star Wars, but when looking at the numbers, it makes more sense. Lucasfilm was a studio past its prime that had stopped making movies based on its most popular IPs, whereas Zenimax is growing and thriving with many new games in the pipeline. It's a surefire win for the Xbox Series X and Microsoft.

Next: Star Wars: How Knights of the Old Republic 2 Depicts Mandalore