UK digital games market is worth £500 million

While we might often seem to be writing sad stories here, about how the high street is dwindling, with hardware and gaming stores closing down all over the place, it is leading to better online sales. In 2011, the UK digital games market made over £500 million.

This has come to light as part of a report on the digital sales industry in the UK by the Entertainment Retailers Association, which tallied up the total intake for movies, music and games and found that over a billion pounds was made by the three combined. Impressively, gaming made up over half of that figure – though admittedly a game is usually a bit more expensive than a either of the others.

MCV has done some maths for us and pointed out that this huge figure represents a jump of over 11 per cent on the year before. On top of that, digital has now taken over a quarter of the entertainment media market.

“This reflects their huge investment in new and innovative services – which means you can buy music, video and games literally at any time of the day and wherever you are,” ERA director general Kim Bayley stated.

“At the same time I suspect that many people will be surprised to learn just how resilient the physical business still is, with three-quarters of entertainment sales still on disc.”

“Downloads offer convenience and portability, but people still seem to value the quality and tangibility of a physical product.”

KitGuru Says: It's a shame that this has to coincide with the decline in physical sales, but that's only because times are moving on. High streets are dying because we're moving on as consumers. Digital is the way forward and it seems like there's no stopping it now.

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