The UK is the biggest market for digital games in Europe.
The latest figures from IHS Screen Digest reveal that the digital and online spend on games grew 16 per cent in the UK to £819m last year.
“This is driven by increased spending on freemium PC game experiences, PC game downloads and digital spend on games console content,” said IHS’s head of games Piers Harding-Rolls. “This growth allowed it to remain the biggest market for digital and online games across Europe.
“We expect digital games spend to increase strongly during the next few years as the UK’s traditionally strong console market makes the shift to digital consumption.”
Not all digital markets are in growth, however. In fact MMO games and portal-based PC casual games have declined, as they too are disrupted by new digital and mobile competitors.
Speaking of mobile, this sector reached a massive £430m during 2013, again driven by the freemium model.
“The UK is by some distance the leading mobile games market in Europe,” said Jack Kent, IHS’ Senior Principal Analyst, for Mobile. “Freemium games are driving UK mobile games market success, which is becoming increasingly concentrated at the top of the charts where titles such as King’s Candy
Crush Saga and Supercell’s Clash of Clans dominated the top chart positions throughout 2013.
“2013 also saw leading games publishers launch TV advertising campaigns, something that had been rare outside of Asia until then, underscoring the maturity of the mobile games market and cementing its place as a mass market activity.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/uk-le...-games/0133272