Gaming outshines other UK entertainment sectors in 2019

A report from the Entertainment Retailers Association has confirmed that in the first half of 2019, videogames generated far more income than any other sector of the UK’s entertainment industry. According to the report, in the first half of 2019, UK consumers spent £1.561 billion on videogames, which compares favourably to £1.070 billion spent on video and £673 million spent on music. The figure for videogames revenue represented a 1.0 per cent rise on the same period last year, and accounted for an impressive 47.2 per cent of the total entertainment retail market. The ERA’s CEO Kim Bayley said: “With January-June historically the quietest half of the year, this is another great result for entertainment. Digital services and physical retailers alike continue to innovate to expand the market for music, video, and games.” The ERA’s report shone some interesting light on the revenue split between physical and digital sales of videogames. Of the overall £1.561 billion spend, physical videogames sales accounted for £184.9 million – down by 8.5 per cent on last year’s figures – while digital revenues rose 2.4 per cent to £1.376 billion.