ERA: The UK Entertainment Market in 2025
Games are second year no longer the largest entertainment medium, and the gap increased.
ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) has been publishing data on the UK music, video, and games market for 26 years. The 2025 figures are preliminary; the final numbers will be released later (usually in March).
Entertainment Market Outlook
Combined revenue across all three segments (music, video, games) reached £13.26 billion (+7.1% YoY), an all-time record.
The entertainment economy is growing 4x faster than the UK economy as a whole (GDP forecast for 2025: +1.5%).
Over the past 10 years, the entertainment market has grown by 120%, while the UK economy has grown by just 12% over the same period.
Games are outpacing average UK economic growth over the last decade by 7x, music by 10x, and video by just over 14x.
Games
Gaming revenue came in at £5.37 billion (+7.4% YoY). In 2025 alone, the market grew more than it did over the previous four years combined (2021-2024: +6.7%).
The main growth driver was mobile and tablet games, which reached £1.88 billion (+8.8% YoY).
Digital downloads of console games showed strong growth, reaching £857.6 million (+11.5% YoY).
Physical console game sales dipped to £318.9 million (-1% YoY).
Games remain the last entertainment segment where the ownership model still beats the access model: 45% of revenue comes from purchases rather than subscriptions. For comparison, that figure is 16.6% in music and 7.2% in video.
The best-selling game of the year was EA Sports FC 26, with over 1.97 million copies sold (digital + physical).
Video
Video was the largest revenue segment for the second year in a row, bringing in £5.44 billion (+8% YoY).
Streaming services (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and others) generated £4.9 billion (+8.8% YoY).
Digital sales of films and TV shows grew 7.4% to £202 million.
Physical media sales (DVD and Blu-ray) continued to decline, but the pace slowed to -4.7% YoY, the slowest drop since 2010. Blu-ray has overtaken DVD by revenue (hard to believe I’m writing this in 2026): £84.2 million vs. £64.7 million.
The best-selling film of the year was Wicked (983,000 copies), comfortably ahead of last year’s leader, Deadpool & Wolverine (562,000 copies).
A word from our sponsor
Transform your online store into an LTV powerhouse with Xsolla’s LiveOps tools - run dynamic, segmented campaigns to drive an 80% repeat purchase rate, and boost player retention by 15%+ using in-game synchronized offers and loyalty shops.
Time-limited promos, login bonuses, and referral programs can lift player engagement and help grow ARPPU by 20%+, all through an intuitive interface built for fast campaign launches, deep personalization, and maximum revenue impact.
Music
Revenue reached £2.45 billion (+4.2% YoY).
Streaming subscriptions brought in £2.05 billion (+3.2% YoY).
Physical formats had the strongest growth (surprisingly!) at +11.5% YoY. Vinyl was up 18.5%, cassettes up 95% (though from a tiny base: just £4.6 million). CD sales were nearly flat (-1%).
Taylor Swift topped the charts for the second year in a row, both in albums and vinyl (642,000 albums, including 147,000 on vinyl).