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New VGTR figures from HMRC show a record number of games supported

The most recent stats on VGTR were published in August 2021. To access the most recent report, click here.

New Video Game Tax Relief data published today by HMRC show that to date 1,375 video games have claimed VGTR since the relief was introduced, totalling £3.7bn of UK expenditure of an overall expenditure of £5.6bn.

In 2019-2020, the relief supported a record number of games, with 605 titles receiving a total of £121m across 350 claims, increasing from £104m for 535 titles the previous year. 

HMRC VGTR Claims and Payments 2020

The spread of claims has remained broadly consistent with previous years, reflecting the continued importance of the relief in supporting games and studios with smaller budgets. There were 180 claims for less than £50k representing 51% of all 2019-2020 claims and a further 36% of claims were for amounts between £50k and £500k.

For games with the largest budgets, 30 claims were made for amounts greater than £1m, receiving £85m in total. As Ukie's 'Think Global, Create Local (Feb 2020)' report showed, 45% of the games sector workforce is employed in larger companies employing more than 100 people. Relatedly, the BFI's 'Screen Business (Oct 2018)' report showed that VGTR supported 9,240 UK industry jobs, including 4,320 FTEs directly in game development.

To date, the 150 games completed in 2019-2020 represent £355m of UK expenditure, from a total expenditure of £414m - however this number is provisional and will no doubt rise, as a further 115 games representing £1,353m of UK expenditure are still yet to complete.

Since the relief was introduced in 2014, a total of £444m has been paid out in relation to 1,460 claims.

Across all of these figures, we may see further increases for 2019-2020 as HMRC continue to receive claims.