UK games market hit record £8.8bn in 2025

• The UK games market reached a record valuation in 2025, at nearly £8.8bn.
• Software contributed £6bn while hardware totalled £2.2bn.
• Mobile generated £2.1bn within the software category.
• Revenue from film and TV leveraging game IPs was £159m.

The UK video games market reached its highest valuation ever in 2025, at almost £8.8 billion.

According to new figures released by UK trade body UKIE, the market grew by over 7% last year.

Now, 2026 is expected to be a "landmark year" for game development in the UK, after the industry’s workforce has more than doubled in size over the past decade. Today, games support more than 73,000 jobs in the UK, bringing £6bn in gross value added to the economy each year.

Software supremacy

UKIE’s new figures were revealed yesterday on the first day of London Games Festival, a celebration of games running throughout the week.

Figures highlighted software spending’s dominance, comprising £6bn of 2025’s £8.8bn sum. The category saw 7% growth year-over-year with console game sales at the forefront.

Digital software on consoles made almost £2.5bn last year, up 9% from the year prior. This was ahead of mobile’s £2.1bn, where 8% growth was seen. Digital PC software sales rose to nearly £1.2bn, up 1%.

Conversely, boxed, physical games sales fell to £319 million.

Second to software, games hardware sales contributed £2.2bn to the market. This marked a 3% rise over 2024, led by consoles. The year saw the record-breaking release of the Switch 2, a console which surpassed 10m unit sales worldwide in under four months. In the UK, broader console sales grew by 12% to £811m, beating PC’s £790m.

Console accessories generated a further £420m, down 9%, while VR fell by 26% to just £161m.

"Even against a backdrop of rising costs and squeezed household budgets, British consumers spent more on games in 2025 than ever before, which is a remarkable vote of confidence in the medium," said UKIE CEO Nick Poole.

"The next 12 months could be genuinely defining for the UK games industry, with studios across every region of the country developing titles that will reach millions of players."

Transmedia trending

UKIE also noted the rising impact of game culture - meaning revenue from transmedia and other initiatives leveraging game IPs, such as toys and merchandise. This category grew by 42% in 2025 up to £566m.

This was cited as "yet more evidence pointing to the British public’s growing appetite for games".

A Minecraft Movie was named for contributing £56.8m at the UK box office alone, currently holding the title of highest-earning video game film in British cinema history. Overall transmedia revenue from film and TV totalled £159m, meaning 36% came from this one film’s box office success.

It also means transmedia accounted for 28% of overall game culture revenue, still short of merchandise sales.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has since become a box office hit for 2026, having jumped to $372.6m internationally in its first five days.

PGC London 2026 had a dedicated transmedia summit as the format grows in prominence. We also spoke with Rovio about Angry Birds' early entry into transmedia and the upcoming third movie.

PGC Summit Malmö is taking place on May 27th and 28th.