More live esports tournaments and LANs helped push up the overall number of video game events in the UK year-on-year.
Revenues generated from UK game event ticket sales rose 20.6% to £7.48 million in 2016, driven by the growth of esports and more consumer shows. In 2015 that figure stood at £6.2 million.
The data was revealed today at games trade body UKIE’s London office, in conjunction with GamesIndustry.biz.
UKIE said the rise in game events was ‘fuelled by a growing esports scene in the UK and consumers engaging more with the industry at UK-wide games shows such as popular Insomnia and upcoming EGX Rezzed’.
“UK games events have seen a strong increase, fuelled by a growing esports scene in the UK.”
Over the years, gaming events have become more popular and incredibly varied, ranging from LANs to esports tournament finals, expos, meet-ups, retro game gatherings, awards bashes, game soundtrack concerts, launch events and more.
Speaking of events, Esports News UK has a social networking event taking place April 8th at the Secret Weapon gaming pub in Stratford for people in the UK esports scene. You can sign up for free here.
Overall, the UK games market was valued at a record £4.33 billion last year, up 1.2% over 2015.
Digital console and PC game sales hit £1.22 billion overall.
You can check out more figures below:
Data provided by GfK, SuperData, Kantar, Nielsen, the Official Charts Company, NPD, UKIE and GamesIndustry.biz
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
