UKIE has reported that the UK’s consumer games market beat its previous record by 1.90% in 2021, with the industry drawing in £7.16 billion.According to UKIE and its partners, the UK’s video game market saw a large amount of growth throughout 2021. The industry generated £2.66 billion from video game hardware sales, £4.28 billion from video game software sales, and £226 million from video game culture sales, which equates to a whopping £7.16 billion. The figures show that console hardware sales grew by 32.9% from 2020, which generated £1.13 billion alone. “2021 was the first full calendar year for Sony’s PS5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series consoles,” says GfK Entertainment’s senior client director, Dorian Bloch. “Both made a huge impact in Q4/20 at launch, with consumer demand outstripping supply, so there is no surprise that this is the best year since the all-time peak back in 2008″ — the Nintendo Switch also celebrated another successful year. Another significant category that helped grow hardware sales in 2021 was Virtual Reality hardware sales, which saw a 41.9% increase over 2020 and generated £183 million.The UK’s video game software market saw a 6.32% decline in spending compared to 2020, but it has still grown by 11.4% compared to 2019’s revised £3.84 billion. The drop comes as no surprise after we saw a number of games delayed due to the pandemic in 2021. Digital console game sales dropped by 5.59% and digital PC game sales reduced by 7.02%, with both generating £1.65 billion and £620 million respectively. Physical game and preowned sales also dropped alongside digital game sales. New physical games generated £511 million in 2021, which is a 20.9% reduction from 2020’s figures, and preowned physical games saw a 20.8% reduction to £33.8 million. Mobile game sales remained steady compared to 2020, generating £1.46 billion.Video game culture sales — toys and merchandise, books and magazines, streaming and game video content, film, TV, and music, and events and venues — generated £226 million in 2021, growing by 13.8% from 2020. Toys and merchandising saw the largest growth, which enjoyed a 33.6% rise to £159 million. Executive director of UK Toys at NPD, Melissa Symonds, says: “Video and Digital Game related toys have seen consistent double-digit growth in the UK for the last three years and are now 5% of total UK Toys sales.” Will you be heading to Trafalgar Square this weekend to take part in the festivities? Let us know down in the comments!
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