You don't need us telling you that it's been an unusual year, but with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, many people have significantly invested in their home entertainment setups. When games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons are setting record sales for Nintendo of Europe, it's not too shocking to learn the UK video games market just had its most fruitful year on record.
According to new data from Ukie's 2020 Consumer Market Valuation, consumers spent a record £7bn throughout 2020 – a figure that represents a mighty 29.9% increase on the previous year, and sits more than £1bn higher than 2018’s previous record total of £5.7bn. The huge sales were largely driven by games software (up 18.5% year-on-year from £3.8bn to £4.5bn), and hardware (up 60.8% to reach £2.3bn). Other sales such as those in toys and merchanding also played their part.
Ukie's report, provided to Nintendo Life in a press release, cites both a new console generation and the effects of the pandemic as reasons for the growth. Despite the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles playing "an important role" in last year's success, though, GfK Entertainment's Senior Client Director for Market Intelligence, Dorian Bloch, says Switch is the "big winner":
"The 2020 big winner by format was Nintendo Switch for software by revenue. During the initial Covid lockdown period, covering weeks 13-25 in 2020 where many stores were closed and the initial Covid spike affected many entertainment sectors, we saw massive growth from Switch software sales, up 215% over the equivalent 13 weeks of 2019."
Here's a handy infographic detailing Ukie's video game market valuation for 2020. As you can see, it's not all great news, sadly. With industry events like EGX closing their doors in 2020, income expectedly dropped by a huge 97%, earning just £249,000. Books and magazine revenue also fell by a quarter, dropping to £10.5 million.
Have you found yourself buying more games throughout the pandemic? Have you been playing more games as a result? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 24
Well... During times of crisis the video game industry tends to grow. Not really that surprising.
Question :"Have you found yourself buying more games throughout the pandemic?"
Me : Yes, of course. But i bought a lot of PS3 games during pandemic last year. I quickly collected All Ratchet & Clank PS3 games, including the Trilogy one. I only bought 4 Switch games during year 2020.
As long as game publishers etc expect a decline over the next year as lockdowns are lifted then all’s well - we don’t want them panicking about reduced revenue next year and start stuffing loot boxes etc in more games to keep chasing ever increasing profits
So they’re making more money than ever... and now is the time for a price hike?
I suppose the interesting thing will be how many people who picked up consoles for the pandemic will continue gaming going forward beyond perhaps one game a year or if it will slump back to previous levels the year before.
Yep, that's quarantine for ya.
The switch is a Hybrid succes. Even with the low power, its a big hit. Take it where u want. In a time like this, everyone wants one. Next to a switch,
I got myself a Alienware gaming laptop, just for the high end games. But for the retro style games and games like smash Bros, mario, zelda, luigis mansion etc, its magical. If a Pro happends soon, i will be the first in line lol.
Well, I would imagine that you would play lots of video games if you were cooped up in your tiny studio apartment all day.
Man, I need to move.
God, I remember when, if you were a gamer you were a weirdo and a loser.
Nowadays its just normal, how things change
Though I'm sure it grew in 2020, it is not as simple as comparing numbers. A switch costs double the amount of a SNES, and then comes all the ridiculously expencive accessories one needs to play 2 player games, and games are more expensive, etc. And my controllers broke, so I had to buy new, which never happened to SNES controllers. And so on. Also, the fact that people throw money after something doesn't always mean it's more popular in real terms. I played probably 4 hours every day as a child, while now it's a lot less. But I have so much money that I just buy games I never even play.
Mr Fuggles comment... really went left field quick huh?!?!
no suprise Gamers spent more money in hardware and software in 2020, why do expect, no increase with everyone locked up and without no option of normal enternaiment(like parks and movies)of course i gonna spent my money in games, we need hardware and software, to bring some joy during this hard times.
game publisher/hardware markers must be prepared, to ounce the pandemic is finaly over to return to normal sales in hardware and software.
@ozwally sadly knowing how many game publishers like EA and Activison are power hungy to money, they will problaby resort to scummy tactics like microtranstaction and others to keep records net income.
We all know how executives and investors work. When the numbers drop dramatically once the world is normal-ish, they'll panic that the industry is in decline and we'll start hearing Patcher ranting about how the console business is near dead and mobile and streaming is the only viable future for the industry.
Every time there's a bull market, investors reset that that's the minimal expectation forever more and anything else is a sell-everything crisis.
@Bunkerneath some people in school treated me like a weirdo, because i prefered games then women or soccer(i live in sao Paulo a city in Brazil).
@Mr-Fuggles777 You could switch things up. Maybe get her to strap on the plastic.
I would love to know the ring fit statistics. What percentage of people kept at it? Change in fitness levels? How many just said "f*ck it" and put it in the cupboard with the abflex?
The Crisis just seemed to play right into console and Switch in general success.
@Giancarlothomaz Exactly my fear
@zander_dale I missed everything, seen this and when I went back the comment had been deleted and I suppose any responses had gone as well.
@ozwally mine too.
The market value of mobile games (I guess is only smartphone games in there) is a big surprise to me.
I remember when it was a niche interest and you were thought to be a geek if you played video games. Now popstars and actors play them. We're finally the cool kids.
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