As music sales and streaming revenue reaches a high of £2.4bn – the highest since 2001, not accounting for significant inflation – the UK video game market, which has grown almost continually for decades, has shrunk by 4.4%. The most significant decline was in boxed video game sales, down 35%.

Data from Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) puts the total worth of the UK video game market in 2024 at £4.6bn, double the music market and behind TV and movies at £5bn.

The numbers show a shift in players’ purchasing habits that has been ongoing for years, from physical games to digital downloads and in-game purchases in popular, established games such as Fortnite and Roblox. Boxed games now account for 27.7% of new game sales in the UK, according to ERA data.

“We see at least four factors impacting physical sales,” an ERA spokesperson said. “First, gamers becoming more comfortable with console downloads; second, the growing popularity of subscription access; third, the fact that we are in a down period of the console cycle; and finally, the lack of new hit IP. If you look at the top 10 titles [of 2024], there really isn’t much that’s genuinely new that’s broken through.”

The waning of physical sales also reflects a precipitous decline in bricks-and-mortar video game retail. The UK’s one remaining specialist video game retailer, Game, was acquired by Sports Direct owner Frasers Group in 2019, and last year ceased both in-store game pre-orders and pre-owned game sales, as well as shutting down its customer loyalty scheme. As staff told Eurogamer in a report last year, the stores themselves have shifted from stocking a wider variety of video games to toys, action figures and other merchandise, making it difficult for customers to walk in and purchase a boxed game on the high street even if they want to, unless it is an established top-seller such as Call of Duty or EA Sports FC.

“The 35% decline in UK boxed game sales reflects a broader global shift,” says NYU Stern professor and market analyst Joost van Dreunen. “We’re seeing similar patterns across major markets, though the pace varies by region … Boxed games won’t disappear entirely but are unlikely to regain their former market position. The digital distribution models that have been popularised over the past decade better serve both publishers and consumers. Physical formats will likely persist as premium collector’s items or in markets where digital infrastructure is still developing, but they’ll represent an increasingly niche segment of the market.”

Download sales were also down slightly, 5% on PC and 15% on console. Subscription revenue, meanwhile, rose 12%, and revenue from mobile and tablet games rose 2.6%.

After a period of rapid growth during and in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the global games industry has contracted. A drought of new investment, combined with corporate publisher belt-tightening, resulted in around 15,000 lost jobs across the industry in 2024. But in 2025, analysts expect a recovery in sales and revenues, driven by Nintendo’s successor to the 150m-selling Switch console and by Grand Theft Auto 6.