UK games market worth £4bn in 2008

The official figures are in and - as we predicted just before Christmas - 2008 was a record year for video games sales in the UK.

In total, the games market was at an all time high last year according to ELSPA/GFK Chart-Track figures with the total software and market worth £4.034bn - up greatly from £3.4bn in 2007.

82.8m units of software were sold in the UK

Proving our calculations correct, software alone was worth £1.905bn, up over 20 per cent over 2007's £1.552bn.

Total hardware sales revenue was £1.422bn, up 14 per cent on £1.252bn in 2007.

Peripherals also saw a boom, with sales up to £549m - up 82 per cent over 2007's £301m.

ELSPA attributed the market growth to the wider demographic being served by the video games industry plus growth in formats held by Nintendo plus Sony and Microsoft