A new report from game industry experts UKIE has calculated the UK games market grew by 2% in 2021. Game sales were expected to fall after hitting record heights during the pandemic, but sales reached 7.16bn despite lockdowns being eased. The annual report looks at how much has been spent by UK consumers on game software, game hardware, and game culture (such as toys, movies, and books).
Sales were also expected to drop after Sony and Microsoft’s issues in producing enough consoles following the worldwide chip shortage. Customers have been struggling to purchase the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X but console sales still reached over 1bn in 2021. This is largely down to Nintendo who is still experiencing high sales of the Switch thanks to the new OLED version.
The biggest rise was in VR technology with headsets sales increasing by over 40%. The report puts this down to Facebook as they continue working on a new social media platform designed to work in a virtual reality called Metaverse. While mobile phone games have seen another successful year, digital sales of console games are down over 5% in 2021. A breakdown of hardware, software, and merchandise sales is below.
