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 has almost two decades of experience in journalism, and left Esports News UK in June 2025.
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 also previously worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation.
