Video games were the most popular form of entertainment in 2022 by far

Last year, gaming was once again the largest home entertainment sector in the UK, having earned around £4.66 billion (around $5.66 billion) in revenue according to The Digital Entertainment and Retail Association’s 2022 report (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz).

ERA’s report estimates that across music, video and video games sales, the UK’s home entertainment market earned a colossal £11.1 billion in 2022 (that’s about $13.49 billion for folks in the US). Out of that, video games accounted for 42.1%, which is incredibly significant.

Let’s face it, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is almost certainly going to be one of 2023’s best-selling games. Take a look at the trailer below.

It not exactly news that digital games have been increasing in popularity in recent years, but what is surprising is just how popular they were in 2022 compared to their physical counterparts. Digital sales went up 3.1% from 2021 and accounted for a whopping £4.17 billion (around $5.1 billion), while physical sales were down 4.5%, and represented £488 million (approximately $593 million) of the sector. Still a lot of money, but not nearly as much. I’m starting to think I might be alone in buying boxed copies of games for the sole reason of them looking nice on a shelf.

“Gaming remains the often-unheralded leader of the entertainment market,” ERA’s CEO, Kim Bayley said. “While growth at 2.3% was lower than that of video or music, its scale is enormous and in terms of innovation and excitement it continues to set the pace for the entire entertainment sector.”

These numbers aren’t final, mind you - they’re preliminary figures that will be properly consolidated in March, so some numbers might change around slightly by then. Overall though, it's not at all a shock to find out that gaming did so well last year when so many brilliant titles released - from Horizon Forbidden West to Elden Ring and Xenoblade Chronicles 3, it was a year of certified bangers.