ELSPA and ChartTrack have reported unprecedented revenue growth for software over the first half of 2008. Over all formats, software sales reached £738 million (31.3 million units sold) - an increase of 42 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Hardware revenue told a similar success story, but largely due to Nintendo’s consoles. Console revenue hardware rose by 27 per cent on last years figure to £405 million for the same period last year. Units increased by 41 per cent to 3.1 million.

PC was the only format to suffer a fall in revenue at retail, dropping 29 per cent on the same period last year, to £48 million for software.

“Games are now one of the most popular pastimes of the British – hence these remarkable figures. Our gamers are more mature than those of most countries – the average age of a player here is now 33 – and as our core gamers have grown up, so too have the revenues they bring in,” said Paul Jackson, director general of ELSPA. “Games are also proving themselves to be robustly recession-proof. Other retailers in the High Street have been struggling this year, but those selling games are not having such a tough time.”

“Britain leads the way across Europe – and one in three games sold across the EU is also developed here. The challenge now is to ensure our success is not taken for granted at home or undervalued in any way – and to ensure we have the home-grown talent to ensure we will still be leading the way five years down the road.”