Video games outsold music and film in the UK for the 11th time in a row last year

10 January, 2023

gaming

It’s been reported that video games once again outsold music and film in the UK last year, for the 11th time in a row.

READ MORE: 12 upcoming games to get excited for in 2023

According to UK trade body the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA), gaming accounted for 42.1 per cent of total entertainment revenue in 2022, earning over £4.6billion.

The report takes into account the sale of physical software, digital console downloads and mobile games alongside “a variety of other subscription and token-based playing mechanisms”.

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said: “Gaming remains the often-unheralded leader of the entertainment market. While growth at 2.3 per cent was lower than that of video or music, its scale is enormous and in terms of innovation and excitement it continues to set the pace for the entire entertainment sector.”

The report says that physical games software sales fell 4.5 per cent last year, making up just 10 per cent of the overall sector while console downloads rose by 12.2 per cent to earn £724million.

Meanwhile, film revenue grew over 14 per cent in 2022, thanks to streaming. According to the ERA, subscription video on demand grew by 17.6 per cent compared with 2021 and now accounts for 87 per cent of the video market, earning £3.9billion.

DVD sales once again fell, this time by 22 per cent, but the sales of “premium formats like Blu-ray and 4K UHD” grew by 7 per cent to £91million.

“Video has faced the double whammy of a dearth of new releases caused by the Covid lockdown on top of the structural change from physical to digital, but 2022 saw the sector at another all-time high and well-ahead of its 2008 physical peak of £2.8billion. The success of Top Gun: Maverick and second-placed Spiderman: No Way Home shows the centrality of new releases to drive excitement in the video market,” said Bayley.

As for music, total revenue increased by 3 per cent to almost £2billion thanks mostly to streaming services, which saw a 5 per cent rise in revenue and earned £1.6billion

Physical sales may have fallen by 3.8 per cent but for the first time in 35 years, vinyl outsold CDs in the UK.

In other news, American McGee, a game developer who worked on various id Software titles in the ‘90s, has paid back a loan to the studio’s founder John Carmack after 25 years.

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