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in: Europe, Sales by country

United Kingdom

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The United Kingdom is one of the major markets in Europe and the major region that speaks predominantly English. It has similar buying patterns as the United States. Sales used to tracked through Chart-Track but, modern sales are tracked through the GfK Group and GSD.

Annual revenue[]

Year Revenue Inflation Notes Ref
1980 Taito leads arcade market. 57,000 computers sold in 3 years. [1][2]
1981 $200,000,000 [3]
1982 $800,000,000 [4]
1992 $2,273,500,000 $870 arcade,[5][6][7] $1.4035 console[8]
1993 $961,540,000 Console market [9][10]
1994 $1,200,000,000 Retail market [11]
1995 $1,500,000,000
1996 $1,600,000,000
1997 $1,800,000,000
1998 $2,200,000,000
1999 $2,300,000,000 Retail software
2000 $2,410,000,000 Retail market [12]
2001 $2,500,000,000 Retail market [13]
2002 $2,939,000,000 Retail market [14]
2003 $4,200,000,000 Consumer market [15]
2004 $3,410,000,000 Retail market [16]
2005 $3,580,000,000 [17]
2006 $4,140,000,000 [18]
2007 $6,910,000,000 [19]
2008 $8,200,000,000 [20]
2009
2010 £2,875,000,000 [21]
2011 £2,500,000,000 [22]
2012 £2,890,000,000 [23]
2013 £2,190,000,000 [24]
2014 £3,980,000,000 [25]
2015 £4,190,000,000 [25]
2016 £4,330,000,000 [26]
2017 £5,110,000,000 [27]
2018 £5,700,000,000 [28]
2019 £5,350,000,000 [29]
2020 £7,000,000,000 [30]
2021 £7,160,000,000 [31]
2022 £7,050,000,000 [32]
2023 £

Best-selling franchises[]

See also: Best selling games in the UK

The following are the best-selling game franchises in the UK, in terms of physical sales between 1995 and April 2023. Games like LEGO Star Wars are counted under both LEGO and Star Wars.[33]

Franchise Revenue
1 FIFA £1,960,000,000
2 Call of Duty £1,530,000,000
3 Mario £1,070,000,000
4 Grand Theft Auto £769,000,000
5 LEGO £506,000,000
6 Star Wars £492,000,000
7 Pokémon £486,000,000
8 The Sims £438,000,000
9 Assassin’s Creed £409,000,000
10 Need for Speed £378,000,000

Most famous franchises[]

Rank Franchise Fame Ref
1 Super Mario Bros. 93% [34]
2 Sony Entertainment 92%
3 Sonic the Hedgehog 90% [35]
4 Grand Theft Auto 88% [34]
5 Solitaire 88%
6 Minecraft 87%
7 Sudoku 86%
8 Call of Duty 85%
9 FIFA 83%
10 Fortnite 80%

Most popular characters[]

The following are the most popular characters in the UK by Google Search results, as of February 2023.[36]

Rank Character
1 Pac-Man
2 Sonic
3 Pikachu
4 Lara Croft
5 Kirby
6 Kratos
7 Crash Bandicoot
8 Mario
9 Yoshi
10 Rayman

See also[]

References[]

  1. ↑ https://archive.org/details/coin-slot-location-1980-autumn/Coin%20Slot%20Location%20-%20Volume%201%20Issue%201%20-%20Autumn%201980/page/n49
  2. ↑ https://archive.org/details/coin-slot-location-1980-autumn/Coin%20Slot%20Location%20-%20Volume%201%20Issue%201%20-%20Autumn%201980/page/n31/mode/2up
  3. ↑ http://2600connection.com/library/magazines/spectrum/spectrum_dec82.pdf
  4. ↑ http://2600connection.com/library/magazines/spectrum/spectrum_dec82.pdf
  5. ↑ In 1992, the game (Street Fighter II) captured 60% of the UK coin-op market, with individual machines taking up to £1000 per week, for an estimated total of £260 million per year.
  6. ↑ Interview with David Snook, editor of Coin Slot, published in Mega (magazine), issue 10, page 18, July 1993
  7. ↑ £434 million = $870 million in 1992
  8. ↑ £700 million [1] [2] = $1403.5 million in 1992
  9. ↑ Edge, issue 1 (October 1993), page 14
  10. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/nintendo-offloads-games-distribution-1593449.html
  11. ↑ Yuko Aoyama & Hiro Izushi (2003), Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry, Research Policy 32: 423-44
  12. ↑ UK, 2000: £1.1 billion = $1.81 billion
    • Software: £930 million
    • Hardware: £170 million
  13. ↑ Yuko Aoyama & Hiro Izushi (2003), Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry, Research Policy 32: 423-44
  14. ↑ UK, 2002: £1.747 billion = $2.939 billion
  15. ↑ UK, 2003: £2.27 billion = $4.2 billion
    • Retail sales: £2 billion = $3.811 billion
    • Online revenue: £270 million = $341 million
  16. ↑ UK, 2004: £1.751 billion = $3.41 billion
    • Software: £1.401 billion = $2.73 billion
    • Hardware: £350 million = $682 million
  17. ↑ £1.858 billion = $3.58 billion
  18. ↑ £2.07 billion = $4.14 billion
  19. ↑ £3.4 billion = $6.91 billion
  20. ↑ £4 billion = $8.2 billion
  21. ↑ https://www.engadget.com/2011-01-04-xbox-360-and-ps3-dominated-uk-in-2010-game-market-sales-totaled.html
  22. ↑ https://www.engadget.com/2012-01-06-uk-retail-game-market-fell-in-2011.html
  23. ↑ https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/retail/uk-consumers-spent-2-9bn-on-games-in-2012/
  24. ↑ https://www.musicweek.com/news/read/music-sales-worth-half-of-uk-s-video-games-market-in-2013/057152
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/uk-games-industry-4bn
  26. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-games-market-worth-a-record-4-33bn-in-2016
  27. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-games-market-grows-12-4-to-a-record-5-11bn-in-2017
  28. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-consumer-spend-on-games-grows-10-to-a-record-5-7bn-in-2018
  29. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-consumers-spend-5-35bn-on-games-in-2019
  30. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/uk-games-industry-valuation-2020
  31. ↑ https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/uk-games-industry-reports-record-7-16bn-in-2021/
  32. ↑ https://ukie.org.uk/news/2023/04/uk-consumer-games-market-valuation-2022
  33. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/star-wars-is-the-sixth-biggest-video-game-franchise-in-uk-history-uk-time-tunnel
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 https://yougov.co.uk/ratings/technology/fame/video-games/
  35. ↑ https://yougov.co.uk/topics/technology/explore/video_game/Sonic_The_Hedgehog
  36. ↑ https://www.newsletter.co.uk/lifestyle/tech/what-are-the-most-popular-video-game-characters-in-the-uk-4010907

External links[]

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