It's no secret that the entertainment business, especially the video game sector, is struggling to see the same peaks as it did in 2020 when the pandemic hit and spending on home entertainment went through the roof. But over in the UK, 2025 has been a big year for video games all the same, one of the biggest in some time.
As per GamesIndustry.biz, the latest data from the Entertainment Retailers Association has been published and revealed that video game spending is up 7.4% year-over-year in 2025 when compared to 2024. It's the largest leap in revenue since 2020, and in total it has attributed to £5.4 billion in spending by consumers in the segment.
The main force behind this growth was actually the mobile gaming sector, which jumped 8.8% and brought in £1.88 billion, equating to 35.5% of spending total in 2025. Console game downloads accounted for £857.6 million, and physical sales hit £318.8 million, with the latter equating 5% of the total UK games revenue.
The best-selling game of the year in the country was unexpectedly EA Sports FC 26 with 1.97 million units to its name in the country, and the other interesting trend was that 45% of video game revenue came from ownership and not subscriptions, which is massively up over music and video at 16.6% and 7.2%, respectively.
Lastly, the information shows that UK entertainment revenue peaked at £13.3 billion, a 7.1% increase year-on-year, with games making up the large majority of that figure.