UK consumers are spending more money on video games and the cultures surrounding them, including streaming subscriptions, donations and movies.
They spent £66m on watching games, streaming and video content in 2025, an 8.3% increase from the £61m spent in 2024.
This contributed to a total of £566m spent on game culture in the UK in 2025, a 42% year-on-year increase from £397m in 2024.
This is according to the latest annual UK Games Market Consumer Valuation from UK games industry trade body, Ukie, published today.
Another area of growth within UK game culture is consumer spending on toys and merchandising. That reached £333m in 2025, up 43% year-on-year.
And film, TV and soundtracks are another growth area. The Minecraft Movie grossed £56.8m at the UK box office alone, making it the highest-earning video game film in British cinema history. This contributed to a 70% rise in game-related film and TV revenue, which reached £159m in 2025 overall.
However, one area of UK game culture that has suffered in recent years is the events-and-venues category. Spend dropped 39% year-on-year to £5.6m in 2025, down from £9m in 2024.
This comes after the UK lost several physical games events in recent years, including Insomnia Gaming Festival and WASD, with some guests reporting a decline in games presence at events like EGX.
Overall, across game software, game hardware and game culture, Ukie reported 7.4% year-on-year growth in the UK games market, with consumers spending £8.76bn in 2025.
The figures were revealed as the London Games Festival kicks off today, an annual showcase that is running from April 13th to 19th 2026.
According to a press release, London is the third-largest global hub for game makers, sitting just behind Los Angeles and San Francisco. 2026 visitor numbers to the festival are set to exceed last year’s, with over 100,000 attendees expected over the coming week, including more than 5,000 industry professionals from over 30 countries.
The UK’s Creative Industries Minister, Ian Murray, said: “Video games are not only great fun, they are big business – and for too long their value to the British economy has been overlooked. That is why the government has thrown its full support behind the sector with £30 million of new funding. This will turbocharge the careers of some of our most talented game developers, creating more jobs and economic growth right across the country as their ideas come to fruition.”