According to the latest data published by UKIE, the British video game market was valued at nearly Pound8.8 billion (approximately $11.9 billion) in 2025, an increase of more than 7 per cent over the same period.
According to the report, 2026 is expected to be the “milestone year” of British game development, and the size of the labour force in this sector has more than doubled over the past decade. Today, the game industry supports more than 73,000 jobs in the United Kingdom, contributing a total added value of Pound6 billion to the economy. The data show that software expenditure predominated at Pound8.8 billion of gross production. This category increased by 7 per cent over the same period, with limited sales of mainframe games. The mainframe game digital version earned nearly Pound2.5 billion last year, an increase of 9 per cent over the same period, ahead of the moving end of Pound2.1 billion and an 8 per cent increase over the same period. PC-end digital game sales rose to Pound1.2 billion, an increase of 1 per cent. In contrast, sales of real games fell to Pound319 million. The sale of real games contributed £2.2 billion to the market, an increase of 3 per cent compared to 2024 and driven mainly by the mainframe. A record release of Switch 2 was witnessed in 2025, with global sales exceeding 10 million in less than four months. In the United Kingdom, overall mainframe sales grew by 12 per cent to Pound811 million, exceeding the PC Pound790 million. Host fittings created an additional Pound420 million, down 9 per cent. VR equipment fell by 26 per cent to Pound161 million.
The CEO of UKIE, Nick Poole, stated: “Despite the background of rising costs and austerity in family budgets, British consumers invested more in the game in 2025 than ever before, fully demonstrating consumer confidence in the game media. The British game industry may be really defined in the next 12 months, and all English studios will develop games that reach millions of players.” UKIE also noted the increasing influence of the game culture, i.e. income from cross-media and other initiatives using game IP (e.g. toys and surroundings). This category grew by 42 per cent in 2025 to Pound566 million. This is cited as “an additional evidence of the growing demand for games by the British public”. Of these, My World’s Big Film, which contributed £56.8 million to the British box office alone, is currently the highest-paid video game adaptation in British history. The total cross-media income of film and television is Pound159 million, which means that this film alone contributes 36 per cent of this amount. This also means that cross-media accounts for 28 per cent of total game culture revenues, still below the sales of goods.
The Super Mario Galactic Film, created by Nintendo Sony, was released on April, reaching $372.6 million in the first five days of the International Ticket Office, and, according to Variety, for the first time, the Super Mario Galactic Film is worth over $630 million worldwide, surpassing the Save Plan, honoring the annual lottery champion, and the appeal of the game IP.
