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Video gaming in the UK was boosted by the arrival of a “new console generation” last year as the market surged to a record £7bn.
Players pushed the sector’s value up 29.9pc compared to 2019 with increases across both digital and physical sales, according to a report by gaming industry body Ukie.
Digital sales took the lion’s share totalling £3.90 billion, with digital console revenues rising 24.2pc, mobile games up by 21.3pc and digital PC adding 14.8pc.
Despite store closures as the UK went in and out of lockdown, traditional boxed game titles also climbed by 7.1pc to £646 million, but pre-owned game-buying took a hit, diving 22.8pc compared to the year before.
Gaming hardware raked in £2.26bn, thanks partly to new launches of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, with console hardware alone making up £853 million of that figure, up 74.8pc.
Dorian Bloch, senior client director at GfK, which compiled some of the data, said: “The 2020 big winner by format was Nintendo Switch.
“During the initial Covid lockdown period, we saw massive growth from Switch software sales, up 215% over the equivalent 13 weeks of 2019.
“Xbox One and PS4 also enjoyed uplifts and of course, at the tail end of 2020 we saw the introduction of PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, whose effect will be significant for 2021 and beyond.”
