Over 80% of UK games revenue now digital, biggest sellers in 2018 revealed

News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor

Published on Jan. 3, 2019

80.1% of the video game market revenue in the UK last year has all been digital.

The UK's Entertainment Retailers Association has revealed that out of the £3.864 billion the local video game market generated in 2018, over £3 billion was made digitally.

This is a 12.5% growth compared to last year, though it's worth keeping in mind that these figures are taking into account things like microtransactions, DLC, subscriptions etc. This is also strictly covering software.

That's not to say retail is completely dead, as the report revealed the millions of copies sold throughout the year by the biggest hitters. Looking at the figures in more detail, it appears most of the copies sold still favour retail, significantly, especially for the biggest games.

FIFA 19, for instance, sold 2.5 million units, 1.89 million of which were made at retail. Though digital data is limited, it does provide context for the numbers we see reported every week at UK retail.

ERA has also revealed the top 20 games at retail in 2018, with sales numbers for each of them. Unsurprisingly, FIFA 19 dominated, followed by Red Dead Redemption 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Spider-Man - the year's best-selling exclusive.