Boxed video game sales collapse in UK as digital revenues flatten
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Data from the Entertainment and Retail Association shows more and more players leaving physical games behind for digital downloads and subscriptions. As music sales and streaming revenue reaches a high of £2.4bn – the highest since 2001, not accounting for significant inflation – the UK video game market, which has grown almost continually for decades, has shrunk by 4.4%. The most significant decline was in boxed video game sales, down 35%.
Data from Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) puts the total worth of the UK video game market in 2024 at £4.6bn, double the music market and behind TV and movies at £5bn. The numbers show a shift in players’ purchasing habits that has been ongoing for years, from physical games to digital downloads and in-game purchases in popular, established games such as Fortnite and Roblox. Boxed games now account for 27.7% of new game sales in the UK, according to ERA data.
“We see at least four factors impacting physical sales,” an ERA spokesperson said. “First, gamers becoming more comfortable with console downloads; second, the growing popularity of subscription access; third, the fact that we are in a down period of the console cycle; and finally, the lack of new hit IP. If you look at the top 10 titles [of 2024], there really isn’t much that’s genuinely new that’s broken through.”.
The waning of physical sales also reflects a precipitous decline in bricks-and-mortar video game retail. The UK’s one remaining specialist video game retailer, Game, was acquired by Sports Direct owner Frasers Group in 2019, and last year ceased both in-store game pre-orders and pre-owned game sales, as well as shutting down its customer loyalty scheme. As staff told Eurogamer in a report last year, the stores themselves have shifted from stocking a wider variety of video games to toys, action figures and other merchandise, making it difficult for customers to walk in and purchase a boxed game on the high street even if they want to, unless it is an established top-seller such as Call of Duty or EA Sports FC.
