The government’s latest economic figures gave more evidence of the strength of the UK’s games industry, showing that the sector grew from £996m to £1.069bn in 2016 – 2017, and a huge 148.9% since 2010. The games industry figure was part of the bigger Creative Industries sector that broke the 100 billion pound mark for the first time, moving from £94.8bn in 2016 to £101.5bn in 2017, accounting for 5.5% of total UK GVA.
The growth shown in these latest government figures mirrors the conclusions from the Screen Business report that Ukie contributed to earlier this year. This more comprehensive study showed that UK development and publishing alone contributed over £1.35bn in direct GVA in 2016, and the overall games industry contributing £2.87bn in GVA. In comparison DCMS’ numbers for 2016 show the GVA to be only £996m.
The government’s research uses Standard Industrial Classification codes to calculate the size of the games sector, which does not capture approximately 50% of the games businesses in the UK. The Screen Business report research used the data from the UK Games Map to give a more accurate core data set and included other parts of the sector such as games retail and esports to better reflect the true value of the games industry to the UK’s economy.
For more information see our blog on the Screen Business report here.