News

UK video games industry contributed over £1.069bn to country's economy in 2017

The figure could be much higher, however.

UK video games industry contributed over £1.069bn to country's economy in 2017

The video games industry's contribution to the UK economy grew from £996m in 2016 to £1.069bn the following year according to research released by the Government.

A new report from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport shows that the sector saw a 7.32 per cent increase in gross value added (GVA) for those twelve months. Furthermore, the sector's contribution has risen by 148.9 per cent between 2010 and 2017.

However, this research doesn't tell the full story. DCMS has only counted companies that use the appropriate games industry Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, within the region of 50 per cent of UK firms not using the correct classifications. So, it's almost certain that the actual figure - and the accompanying growth - is far higher.

Our sister-site PCGamesInsider.biz has the full story.

PocketGamer.biz's two-week UK Special is shining a spotlight on the country's vibrant games industry ahead of Pocket Gamer Connects London on January 21st to 22nd 2019 - the largest B2B mobile games event in Europe.


Tags:
PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.