Study: British Video Game Statistic Shocker — They’re Now Almost Double Movie Profits

Data firm GFK Chart-Track performed a study for the Daily Telegraph, finding that in the 12 month period between September 2008 and September 2009, movies grossed about a billion pounds in the UK.

During the same time period, video game sales totaled about 1.75 billion pounds. TV and music, with their associated fees, hardware and media costs, remain bigger still. But for video games to knock off the lead of a mainstream entertainment venue (one that is about 100 years old, BTW) is a significant accomplishment, especially when it’s by such a large margin.

The number of gaming consoles in British households has increased from 13.5 million units in 2008, to about 25 million in early 2009, or enough for one console to be in nine out of 10 households (though obviously many households simply have one of each of the big three consoles).

This is another feather in Britain’s video game cap. I noted in 2008 that Rob Fahey indicated Game Group (the UK’s equivalent to GameStop) had grown to three times the market cap of Britain’s largest construction firm.

The data have certainly generated discussion in Britain, offering ammo for video game defenders such as Tom Watson, a former Cabinet Office minister: “The industry has matured over the last decade, and so too have gamers.”

Via Blast Magazine & Game Politics

References:
Wallop, H. (2009, December 26). Video games bigger than film. Daily Telegraph. [Online.] Retrieved January 4, 2009 from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/6852383/Video-games-bigger-than-film.html