Taking the crown, Goldman Sachs hit USD 1.66tn in volume, clocking up an astonishing 40 megadeals and achieving market share of 36.4%. Its volume growth of 38.9% year-on-year (YoY) broadly matched the 42.5% growth seen in global M&A. About 60% of its deals were on the sell-side, with substantial input from technology and financial services dealmaking. Most notable on this score was a landmark sellside mandate on the USD 56.6bn pending sale of games giant Electronic Arts to a PIF-led consortium – the largest LBO of all time.

With a volume haul of USD 1.44tn, JPMorgan took a solid second position – and growth of 44.2% YoY even outpaced the global trend. It worked on some 32 megadeals and is arguably the most certain winner in the c. USD 100bn battle between Netflix and Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros Discovery, having secured a plum sell-side role.

Morgan Stanley was mandated across 24 megadeals, with overall volume of USD 1.17tn up 32.8% YoY. Its top scalp was the buy-side mandate from Union Pacific in its pending USD 85bn purchase of rail operator Norfolk Southern, though in 4Q, Morgan Stanley emerged as the key buy-side player in Kimberly-Clark’s USD 51.4bn swoop for US consumer health player Kenvue.

Centerview Partners (USD 542.3bn, up 52.3% YoY) and Wells Fargo (USD 449.9bn, up 61.7% YoY) broke into the top 10 by deal volume, displacing UBS and Deutsche Bank (now at 11 and 13, respectively).

The aforementioned, monomaniacal pursuit of right-scaling – whether by offloading non-core assets to focus on strategic priorities or aiming squarely at inorganic growth levers – reflected major corporate and investor alignment on how to navigate a more unstable geopolitical environment amid a technological revolution.

Such disruption often creates collateral damage and that was true in 2025. While volume soared, global deal count slipped 3.3% YoY, reflecting the greater impact of US tariffs and uncertainty over how AI will play out for mid-market corporates.

PwC (660) kept the No.1 advisory spot by deal count, though this slipped from 770 in 2024 – down 14.3% YoY. Second-placed KPMG also saw its haul decrease, down to 525 from 570 the previous year. Deloitte slipped to fourth from second, shedding 170 deals from 2024’s tally to end 2025 at just 478. Cementing its overall dominance, Goldman Sachs took the bronze medal by deal count, reaching 515 versus 431 in 2024.

Europe 

• Goldman Sachs took the top spot, with volume of USD 600.3bn.
• JPMorgan grabbed silver with volume of USD 409.2bn.
• PWC led by deal count, though its haul of 393 was down 123 versus 2024.
• In the UK, Goldman Sachs was top with volume of USD 227.9bn across 95 deals.
• Likewise, Goldman Sachs took the DACH crown with USD 204.4bn across 51 deals.

Americas winners 

• A double crown for Goldman Sachs, which took the top spot across both volume and deal count with a haul of USD 1.28tn across 372 deals.
• JPMorgan took the silver medal on both scores, with volume at USD 1.18tn across 355 deals.
• This was replicated in US rankings, with Goldman Sachs at USD 1.2tn across 350 deals and JPMorgan with USD 1.13tn across 324 deals.
• In Canada, RBC Capital Markets crossed the line first with USD 113.3bn across 55 deals.

APAC 

• In APAC excl. Japan, Goldman Sachs took the No.1 spot by volume with USD 144.8bn across 73 deals.
• JPMorgan took second place with USD 121.5bn across 66 deals; Morgan Stanley (USD 89.5bn from 61 deals) was third.
• CICC (USD 84.7bn) jumped to fourth from seventh, also taking the No.1 spot in China; BofA Securities (USD 64.2bn) stormed to fifth from 11th.
• On the APAC excl. Japan deal count score, PWC retained its crown with 230 deals, up 18 from 2024.
• In Japan, Nomura took first place by volume with USD 143.6bn and came second by deal count with 137 deals. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group took the No.1 spot by deal count at 142.
• In South Korea, PwC took both the volume (USD 44.9bn) and deal count (143) crowns.
• In India, Citi took the volume top spot at USD 26.7bn across 14 deals
• In Australasia, Macquarie won the day across volume (USD 35.7bn) and deal count (45).

Private equity buyouts

• JPMorgan took the global volume crown with USD 215.1bn across 53 deals.
• Top performer by deal count was Houlihan Lokey, with USD 9.1bn across 68 deals

Private equity exits

• Goldman Sachs scored highest on volume with USD 245.3bn across 62 deals.
• Houlihan Lokey, once again, took the deal count gold, with USD 18.1bn across 95 deals.