March 20, 2017

According to Ukie’s figures, the UK games market was valued at a record £4.33 billion in 2016, up more than 1.2% from the 2015 figures.

Ukie says that the result shows positive growth for the games and interactive entertainment economy, including an 11.1% increase in digital console and PC games sales to £1.22 billion and an impressive 16.9% rise in UK mobile games revenue, which is now worth £995 million.

Physical boxed software sales declined 15.2% to £766.7 million, although this drop was more than made up by gains in the digital and mobile sectors. Pre-owned software saw a slight drop of 3.3% to £119 million, with a lower average selling price masking an increase of sales. Overall, software sales in the UK exceeded £3 billion for the first time.

Ukie says that the consumer release of the first Virtual Reality headsets has helped fuel the growth of the sector though the sales of VR hardware, valued at £61.3 million and included in the market valuation for the first time. The impact of VR was also seen in the sale of top-end graphics cards, driving a huge 64% increase in PC game hardware to £258 million.

As the current generation of the console cycle matures, there was an expected reduction in sales of new console hardware, down 26.7% to £507 million. Console peripherals and accessories were similarly affected, dropping 16.6% to £300.1 million.

UK games events also saw a strong increase, up 20.6% from 2015, fuelled by a growing esports scene in the UK and consumers engaging more with the industry at UK-wide games shows such as popular Insomnia and upcoming EGX Rezzed.

The successes of both Pokémon GO and Minecraft were factors in increases for both categories for game-related toys and merchandise, and books and magazines. Toys and merchandise sales increased by 7.2% to £66.7 million, with books and magazines increasing 13% to £18.4 million.

The influence of games on the other creative sectors continues to grow, with games movies and soundtrack sales increasing 14.4% to £7.8 million, helped along by the success of Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft: The Beginning”. To read Ukie’s press release in full and for the detailed figures, click here.