UK Video Games Market

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All facts and stats on this page are currently sorted in order of publication. Therefore some stats released earlier, such as industry value measurements may have been superceded by later data.

Other Global Industry Categories

• Geography of the UK industry
• UK Investment
• UK Crowdfunding
• UK Digital market
• UK Mobile market
• Exports and Imports

2018 Stats

• The UK’s entertainment and media sector is predicted to grow by £8bn over the next four years to a total of £76bn, making the UK the second largest market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). (PwC, Jun 2018)
• By 2020, total UK video games revenue (£5.5bn) is expected to overtake total spend on books (£4.9bn). (PwC / digitsaltveurope.com, Jun 2018)
• UK Digital game purchases are forecast to reach £721m within the next four years and overtake physical game spend for the first time. (PwC, Jun 2018)
• The UK’s fastest growing entertainment and media sector is Virtual Reality, growing at 34 per cent annually to reach £1.2bn in revenue by 2022. VR headsets are forecast to sell with more than 7.8m cumulatively by the same period. (PwC, Jun 2018)
• The UK’s VR industry will generate more revenue than any other country in Western Europe over this time. (PwC / digitsaltveurope.com, Jun 2018)
• The UK’s second fastest growing entertainment and media sector is esports, growing 21% year on year to reach £48m in revenue by 2022. (PwC / digitsaltveurope.com, Jun 2018)
• Data consumption in the UK will grow by 22% year-on-year till 2022, overtaking France in 2021 to become the biggest market in Western Europe. (PwC, Jun 2018)
• Combined UK physical and digital sales reached a record £3.35bn in 2017, increasing 9.6% from 2016. The value of the UK games home sales market almost equals that of music and video combined, comprising 46.3% of the overall value of the sector. (ERA, Jan 2017)
• Digital games sales grew 12.1% in the UK to £2.56bn in 2017, while physical game sales reversed recent trends, increasing 2.1% to £792m. (ERA, Jan 2017)
• The UK is ranked as the 6th largest games market globally ($4.453m), after China, USA, Japan, South Korea and Germany (Newzoo, Jun 2018)
• Valve’s Steam platforms top 100 highest grossing games of 2017 list featured 15 games made or partly made in the UK, including two games in the top “platinum tier”, one in the gold tier and four in silver. (Steam / Ukie, Jan 2018)
• Valve’s Steam platforms top 92 games by peak simultaneous players featured 14 games made or partly made in the UK (15.2%), including Rockstar’s ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ in the top "over 100k simultaneous players" tier and six games from the UK (or 40%) in the second "over 50k players" tier. (Steam / Ukie, Jan 2018)
• Valve’s Steam platforms top 10 highest grossing VR games featured 11 games made in the UK, including one game partly made in the UK in the top “platinum” tier, one UK-made game in the gold tier and four in silver. (Steam / Ukie, Jan 2018)

2017 Stats

• 83% of UK games businesses predict growth in FY2017/18, up from 79% in the previous year. 82% of games companies are also looking to expand their workforce in the same period. (Ukie, Nov 2017)
• The UK consumer market for games was valued at a record £4.33bn in 2016, up 1.2% from 2015 (£4.28bn). (Ukie, Feb 2017)
• 2016 was the biggest ever year for games software, exceeding £3bn in sales for the first time, driven by record results in both Digital and Online sales (£1.22bn, +11.1%) and Mobile Games, which achieved revenues just short of £1bn (£995.1, +16.9%). Boxed software remains a substantial factor in software sales, despite the general trend towards digital, achieving £766.7m in sales in 2016 (-15.2%). (Ukie, Feb 2017)
• The impact of VR and esports drove a huge increase in PC Game Hardware (£258m, +64.3%), with UK VR Hardware (headset) sales tracked for the first time, valued at £61.3m in 2016. (Ukie, Feb 2017)
• The games industry's impact on broader sectors also showed a record year, with increased sales across game-related toys, merchandise, books, movies and soundtracks, as well as game-based events around the UK, contributing to a record £100.5m in revenues across these segments. (Ukie, Feb 2017)
• The UK is the 5th largest video game market in 2017 in terms of consumer revenues, after China, USA, Japan, South Korea and Germany. (Newzoo, June 2017)
• The UK games market will be Europe’s largest market and the fifth largest globally behind the US, China, Japan and South Korea, growing at 6.7% CAGR and worth £5.2bn in 2021. (PWC, June 2017)
• By December 2017, 70.6m PS4 consoles and 617.8m PS4 games have been sold to date. (SIEE, Dec 2017)
• As of November 2017, the number of PS4 and Xbox One consoles now sold in the UK (the ‘installed base’) stands at 7.5 million, 14% ahead of the installed base at the same point in the previous console generation. (GAME / GfK, Nov 2017)
• Since launch on 3rd March 2017, over 469,000 Nintendo Switches have been sold in the UK & Spain, despite a limited supply. (GAME / GfK, Nov 2017)
• The UK will have the largest and fastest growing VR hardware market in EMEA, worth £0.8m in 2021, growing at 76% CAGR. (PWC, June 2017)
• Console gaming leads the market at $2bn (52%), nearly double mobile’s $1.1bn (28%). PC gaming makes up the remaining 20% at $800m. (Newzoo, Aug 2016)
• The UK is estimated to be the sixth largest video game market in 2015 in terms of consumer revenues, after the China, the US, Japan, South Korean and Germany. The UK market is estimated to be worth $3.5bn. This figure excludes hardware sales and tax (Newzoo, Aug 2016)
• In 2016, games sales in the UK generated more revenue than either video or music, increasing by +2.9% to £2.96bn. This record figure makes the games market 1.3 times the size of the video market (£2.25bn) and 2.6 times the size of music (£1.1bn). (ERA, Jan 2017)
• While physical sales of games declined -16.4% from £927m to £776 in 2016, digital sales increased +12.1% to £2.18bn, more than making up the difference. Physical sales were also down in both video and music, with video seeing a greater decline of -17.1% and music down -7.3%. (ERA, Jan 2017)
• ERA also found that the 2016 digital sales of games (£2.2bn) was larger than the combined digital sales of video and music (£1.9bn). (ERA, Jan 2017)
• Electronic Art's FIFA 17 was the highest selling entertainment product in 2016, selling 2.5m units, approximately 9% more sales than Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which sold 2.3m units. (ERA, Jan 2017)

2016 Stats

• European games industry professionals rate the UK as the place in Europe where both the best games are made today and the best games will be made in five year’s time. (GDC, Aug 2016)
• The UK’s creative industries are now worth a record £84.1 billion to the UK economy. The figures show the sector growing at almost twice the rate of the wider UK economy - generating £9.6million per hour. (Gov.co.uk, Jan 2016)
• The UK games industry grew by 5% to £4.19bn in 2015, up from £3.94bn in 2014. Growth has slowed slightly from 2013-2014, when it was up 13% from £3.48bn (MCV and Ukie, Feb 2016, LINKS for 2015, 2014)
• Games sold more than video or music in 2015. The games market grew by +10% to reach £2.8bn, while video grew by +1.5% to reach £2.2bn and music by +3.5% to reach £1bn. (ERA, Jan 2016)
• While physical boxed software sales decreased by -2.2% (to reach £928m), the digital sales grew by +17.1% (to reach £1,899m). (ERA, Jan 2016, LINK)
• Games represented 46% of the combined games, video and music entertainment market in 2015. (ERA, Jan 2016, LINK)
• The UK games industry was worth nearly £4.2bn in consumer spend in 2015, up 7.4% from £3.94bn in 2014 (Ukie, March 2016)
• The industry’s biggest consumer market revenue streams in 2015 were Digital Console and PC (£1,224m, +13.2%), Boxed Software (£904m, -3%), Consoles hardware (£689m, -28% after the initial sales peak for next-gen consoles) and Mobile gaming (£664m, +21.2%). (Ukie, March 2016)

2015 Stats

• In the 6 months prior to 10th April 2016, people who bought Toys to Life spent an average of £59.77 on figures. 61% of people who bought a starter pack in the last 6 months also bought at least one additional figure. TTL shoppers also spent £36.99 on average on other new boxed games. (Kantar, May 2015)
• UK is the Nbr1 territory for pre-orders across EU (23% of UK players stated they pre-ordered a title in the last year). (MCV and Ipsos MediaCT, Apr 2015, LINK)
• The Entertainment Retailers Association found that games sold more than video or music in 2014. The games market grew by +7.5% to reach £2.5bn, while video decreased by -1.4% to reach £2.2bn and music by -1.6% to reach £1bn. (ERA, January 2015, LINK)
• ERA also found the digital sales of games (£1.5bn) to be bigger than the combined digital sales of video and music (£1.3bn). (ERA, January 2015, LINK)
• The games industry’s economic contribution to the UK can be compared to other screen sectors in the below infographic (BFI, Feb 2015)