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UK Games Market Dropped 3.3% in 2021 to £4.2 Billion

UK Games Market Dropped 3.3% in 2021 to £4.2 Billion - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 06 January 2022 / 1,990 Views

The UK games market dropped 3.3 percent year-over-year in 2021 to £4.2 billion, according to a report published by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). The figure includes physical and digital game sales. 

While sales might have been down compared to 2020, they were up 13.9 percent compared to 2019. 2020 saw 17.8 percent growth due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. 

ERA did mention that shortages of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles likely contributed to the small decrease in game sales. 

UK Games Market Dropped 3.3% in 2021 to £4.2 Billion

"The UK games market is more than double the size it was ten years ago, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8% which is extraordinary by any standards," said ERA CEO Kim Bayley.

"The strong growth in mobile gaming can only benefit the market long-term. Despite the slight reverse in 2021, we can be confident that the games business will continue to prosper."

Physical game saw dropped 20.8 percent when compared to 2020 and 15.1 percent compared to 2019 for a total of £511 million. Digital game sales were down just 0.4 percent compared to 2020 and up 19.4 percent compared to 2019, to reach a total of £3.7 billion.

FIFA 22 was the best-selling game in the UK in 2021 with 1.3 million digital units sold and 0.92 million physical games sold for a total of 2.2 million units. 

UK Games Market Dropped 3.3% in 2021 to £4.2 Billion

The gaming market is the biggest entertainment market in the UK. Games generated twice as much revenue as music - £1.6 billion. Games, music, and video generated a combined £9.7 billion in 2021. This is up 4.6 percent year-over-year.

Thanks, GamesIndustry.

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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3 Comments
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Signalstar (on 06 January 2022)

The 2020 Covid bump was real!

  • +4
Kakadu18 (on 06 January 2022)

Digital is growing so fast.

  • +2
scrapking Kakadu18 (on 07 January 2022)

I went all-digital late in the 360 era, so coming up on a decade of digital-only gaming for me. Many PC gamers have been all-digital longer than me. The only thing that surprises me about it is that it's taken this long to reach the tipping point.

  • +1