Videogame trade body Ukie held its annual Games Industry Market Valuation event today, revealing the value of UK market to be £4.33bn GBP in 2016. As part of the report Ukie highlighted the role virtual reality (VR) had to play valuing its market share at £61.3m.
This is the first time Ukie has included VR in its overall valuation of the UK videogame industry. Alongside the £61.3m – attributed to the consumer launch of Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and mobile headsets – the trade body also acknowledged the impact VR had on the sale of graphics cards, with top-end models driving PC game hardware sales up by 64 percent to £258m from 2015 figures.
Dr Jo Twist OBE, CEO of Ukie, said in a statement: “Our sector is constantly innovating and investing in new experiences, technologies and talent, resulting in the strong and resilient games industry shown in this £4.33bn market valuation. It has been an excellent year for the industry, including the release of first commercially available VR headsets, an exciting year for our national esports scene, and the explosion of the UK mobile market, which is now worth nearly £1bn alone.
“These statistics will go a long way to reinforcing the message that the UK continues to be a world leading games market, remaining strong in the face of an uncertain political climate. Ukie will continue to use these stats to promote the strength of our sector nationally and worldwide to investors, the media, policy makers and more, to prove that the UK is the best place to make and sell games.
“The next year will be a big year of change, but we look forward to seeing the market remain resilient and robust and a leading creative economy in the UK.”
Events within the UK are also growing, up 20.6 percent from 2015, which Ukie puts down to a growing esports scene in the UK and consumers heading to more shows such as Insomnia, EGX and EGX Rezzed.
Last month The VR Fund released its European landscape analysis of the VR industry, noting that 50 percent of the companies are based in the UK, France, Germany and Sweden. 26 were from the UK, 19 from France, 11 in Germany, and 9 came from Sweden.
VRFocus will continue to follow the UK VR industry closely, reporting back with the latest news.