Job market and economic contribution

2018 Stats

• Overall in 2016, the UK games industry provided 47,620 FTE jobs and contibuted £2.87bn in GVA to the UK economy. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• The UK games industry directly employs 20,430 FTEs in development, publishing and retail roles, which contibute £1.52bn in direct GVA to the economy. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

Subsector	Employment (FTEs)	GVA (£m)
Publishing	2,300	526.6
Digital Retail	310	31.7
Physical Retail	3,980	132.0
Total	20,430	1.52

• The economic impact of the growing UK Esports sector was also assessed for the first time and was shown to have supported 470 FTE jobs and contributed £18.4m in GVA in 2016. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• In 2016, the UK games industry spent £1.25bn on game development. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• In the period 2015-2017, there was at least £1.75bn of inward investment in the UK games industry. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• The VGTR supports 9,240 FTE jobs across the UK games industry, including 4,320 directly in development roles (31% of the total UK development workforce). (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• VGTR games represented £389.9m of UK development spend, 31% of the total development spend. Overall, projects supported by the VGTR contibuted£525m in GVA to the UK economy and £158m in tax revenue. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• 68% of VGTR-supported games would not be made in the UK, or at all, without the relief in place. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• For every £1 the Government invested into the games sector via VGTR, an additional £4 in GVA was generated for the UK economy. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• Of all the screen sector tax reliefs, the games sector was shown to have the highest rate of productivity, where each employee generated an average of £83,800 in GVA for the economy, significantly above the national industrial average of £62,100. (Olsberg SPI / BFI, Oct 2018)

• There are 2,277 active video game companies in the UK, as of October 2018. (UK Games Map, Oct 2018)

2017 Stats

• The UK has been ranked as third best country in the world for the ability to attract, retain, train and educate skilled workers, according to the Global Talent Competitiveness Index (INSEAD, Jan 2017, LINK and LINK)

• London, Birmingham and Cardiff act as talent magnets, helping the UK attract more highly-skilled workers. Cardiff is the 11th best city worldwide at attracting, growing and retaining talent, with London listed 16th and Birmingham 17th. (INSEAD, Jan 2017, LINK and LINK)