Technology

Posted on March 5, 2018 by staff

Record year for buoyant UK games industry

Technology

The games industry reached record revenues of £5 billion in 2017 while mobile revenues broke the billion-pound barrier for the first time.

Trade body UK Interactive Entertainment credited the 12.4 per cent overall growth on the previous year to an “expanding audience”.

However despite a 7.8 per cent growth in mobile revenues, user numbers on mobile were relatively flat.

The data was compiled by games research company SuperData, which partners with Ukie, plus market research firms GfK and Kantar Worldpanel.

“Monetisation and conversion rates grew on mobile but user numbers were pretty flat so the increased spending was from existing users,” said Carter Rogers, a senior analyst at SuperData.

Overall software revenues rose 8.3 per cent to more than £3.5bn, driven mainly by digital and online revenues which were up 13.4 per cent to a record £1.6bn, while sales of physical games also grew.

Console sales grew significantly by 30 per cent to £659m while virtual reality hardware sales increase by 23.5 per cent to £101m.

Dr Jo Twist, chief executive of Ukie, said: “New hardware such as the Switch have driven retail sales, virtual reality hardware looks healthy and digital games across all platforms continue to grow.”