Since 2016, the gaming industry (including video and online casino games) has grown by 31%. This means the gaming industry has grown by almost a third in about seven years: an almost unprecedented growth rate. But why and how has gaming become so much more of an integral part of the British entertainment industry? Let’s take a look.

The Numbers

As it stands, the vast majority of the gaming industry companies in the UK are identified as game developers and publishing companies. Of the 2,555 companies in the UK, 2,202 are publishers and developers, 213 are categorised as service companies, and 140 are academic institutions like colleges and universities that offer training in gaming industry-related skills. Most are based in England, but some companies are located in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. As of last year, video games were the single most significant form of home entertainment across the UK, which is hardly a surprise: the growth rate here was 14.4%, pushing it up to £4.3 billion. The market worth was estimated to have come in at about £11.1 billion, but this estimation also included music sales. Here’s the total breakdown of digital sales:

• Mobile gaming went up by 3.2% to £724 million
• Consoling gaming went up by 12.2% to £245 million

UK execs describe gaming as the “often unheralded leader of the entertainment market”.

Now that online gambling is legal all over the UK, you can play online slots UK from your sofa, on your phone while on the bus, or even while you’re having a soak in the bath. While online gambling hasn’t always been legal in all parts of the UK, the boost the industry got in 2015 when online gambling was legalised in all parts of the country was significant. 

Why The Sudden Growth?

The fact is that the cost of living has increased an unprecedented amount over the last few years. Even before the pandemic drove us indoors and forced us to look at new, socially distant ways of entertaining ourselves, the cost of taking your family for dinner or having a few drinks out with friends on a Saturday evening had increased past the point of possibility or practicality for many UK residents. Staying at home in the evenings and over the weekends is now a far bigger part of British life than six years ago. So it’s only logical that forms of entertainment that cater to homebodies have seen an increase in revenue. 

In addition to all this, the UK is home to a wide range of developers whose talent is beyond belief. Many companies have almost caught up with US developers and experienced a number of blockbuster successes over the last few years. Companies like Rockstar North, Codemasters/ Criterion Games, Playstation London Studio, and Travellers Tales have seen incredible success with titles like Red Dead Redemption, Need for Speed Unbound, Lego Starwars: The Skywalker Saga, and Blood & Truth.

The development of more cost-effective, smaller and better-quality technology cannot be understated as an influence on the growth of the UK gaming industry. Unless you want one, you no longer need a full gaming PC setup or a console to indulge in your favourite games has offered a massive boost to the gaming market. Mobile gaming now makes up almost half of the worldwide gaming industry’s revenue. Gaming phones that slide right into your pocket now have just as high a quality of games and in-game graphics; many would-be gamers are going that way rather than opting for a computer or a console. 

For those who do still prefer a classic console or computer gaming setup, gaming subscription services offer access to far more games at a far better price. These subscription services, coupled with cloud gaming, bring high-quality gaming to those who previously did not have a powerful enough setup to enjoy these games to their full potential and can now play them to their hearts’ content through the cloud. Now that online casinos offer mobile-friendly apps, hobby gamblers can access their favourite games whenever they have free time, not only when sitting behind a PC or a laptop.

Wrap Up

Whether you like spending time deep in a fantastical game world, slaying dragons, saving empires, or exploring the galaxy, or if you’re more the gambling type who likes a few slot games or the roll of the dice, the gaming industry has got you covered. The growth of the gaming industry in the UK has been explosive over the last few years, and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down. We can expect to see more growth over the next few years as technology advances and access to the cloud becomes more widespread.