UK 2010 games market hits £2.875bn

Official figures from UKIE show that in 2010 the UK video games market was worth a total of 2.88bn.

This is down on the overall 2009 value of 3.31bn.

In total, console software sales reached 1.45bn with growth on both Xbox 360 and PS3. Xbox 360 games sales hit 538m and the PS3 414m. In total Xbox 360 sold 18.2m software units and the PS3 13.8m.

In the hardware market Xbox 360 was the most lucrative console with hardware revenues of 232m. The PS3 was just behind it with console sales of 229m. The two platforms combined shifted 2.3m units.

UKIE did not release any sales numbers for Nintendo products.

The peripherals market was worth 545m, with total sales reaching 25.8m units.

In total UK consumers purchased 63m console and PC games, averaging out at over one game per UK resident.

Despite 2010 being a tough year for the economy, the video games and interactive entertainment industry continues to perform strongly," UKIE director general Mike Rawlinson stated.

"As the UK’s leading creative industry, these figures demonstrate the increasingly popular position of video games in everyone’s everyday lives, and the strength that the sector has to see it through tough times.

The UK video games market has something for everyone, with the market expanding into new areas, particularly online, on mobile phones and on other interactive devices. This expansion is coupled with the continued strength of traditional markets, providing consumers with choice and demonstrating the industry’s increasing maturity.

"Thanks to continued innovation from games publishers and developers more and more people are playing games. With one in three people now considering themselves gamers, interactive entertainment is increasingly part of everyone’s everyday lives.”