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The UK video game market hit a record £ 7bn last year as the lockdown fueled an unprecedented boom in the popularity of mobile games, virtual reality consoles and headsets.
The gaming industry has proven to be a winner from the coronavirus, with tens of millions of consumers seeking relief from indoor boredom. Gaming fans were joined by millions of newbies seeking home entertainment, resulting in £ 1.6bn more spent on games compared to 2019, an unprecedented 30% year-on-year increase.
“The numbers confirm how valuable games were to people across the country during one of the hardest years of our lives,” said Dr Jo Twist, chief executive of UK gaming industry body Ukie, which publishes the annual figures. “We all know how important entertainment, technology and creativity have been in the last year.”
The biggest year in the history of video games in the UK was sparked by the serendipitous moment of the launch of Nintendo’s familiar phenomenon Animal Crossing: New Horizons on March 20, when Boris Johnson informed the public that the nation was going into his first block the following week.
Animal Crossing, the top seller during the first lockdown, outperforming hardcore gamer favorites like Call of Duty, helped drive a 24% increase in digital game console sales to £ 1.7bn last year. Total digital sales, including mobile and PC, increased 21% to £ 3.9 billion. Total game software sales, including “boxed” games, amounted to £ 4.55 billion.
“During Covid’s initial shutdown period, when many stores closed and other entertainment sectors were affected, software sales for Nintendo Switch increased 215% year-on-year,” said Dorian Bloch, senior director of customers at GfK Entertainment.
Animal Crossing also supported a record 75% increase in spending on new consoles to £ 853 million as the public scrambled to get their hands on the latest home entertainment gaming systems. Last year, overall sales for the Nintendo Switch surpassed those of the long-awaited new PlayStation and Xbox consoles that hit the market in November.
Furthermore, the report said the shift to work from home drove a 70% increase in PC gaming hardware sales to £ 823 million, as consumers, out of the bosses ‘sight, sought to’ buy dedicated computers for gaming to ensure work-at-home setups could work. ” double as entertainment systems ”. Total spending on all gaming hardware increased 61% to £ 2.26bn.
The lockdown also prompted consumers to experiment with newer technologies with sales of virtual reality hardware, such as headsets, which rose 29% to an all-time high of £ 129 million.
However, it was not all good news for the video game industry, as the coronavirus affected parts of the industry that rely on physical engagement.
Event revenue fell 97% to just £ 249,000, and book and magazine revenue fell by more than a quarter to £ 10.5 million. With cinemas closed for much of last year, revenue generated from movies and game-related soundtracks fell 22% to £ 23 million.
The UK video game industry is the largest in Europe and the fifth largest in the world, behind gaming giants such as Japan, South Korea, China and the United States.
