The video games industry is the fastest growing area of entertainment in the world, with Activision's recent blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 selling over 4.7m copies in America and the UK on its first day alone, generating revenues of £187m. This achievement surpassed anything in entertainment history, even beating the most succesful movie of all time on its opening weekend, The Dark Night.

Once upon a time, video games were frowned upon and only for a niche audience, but today they have become a massivley popular and affordable form of entertainment for people of all ages around the world, crossing religious, racial and regional borders like no other form of entertainment before. In the UK alone, over 73% play video games on a regular basis!

According to a recent article published by British newspaper Financial Times, the video games industry currently holds a value of around $50billion, while PricewaterhouseCoopers' recent report titled "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013" estimated than consumer spending on video games will grow by 6.6pc on a compound annual basis from $17.7billion in 2008 to $24.5billion in 2013.

United Kingdom Facts

73% of the UK population (aged 8 and over) plays video games, and those that do play for an average of 5.1 hours per week (74% of the male population, 71% of the female population) (GamesIndustry.com Research, 2009) - this equates to over 250,000million hours of gaming per week Male gamers in the UK: 52% play PC games, 78% play console games (GamesIndustry.com Research, 2009) Female gamers in the UK: 43% play PC games, 73% play console games (GamesIndustry.com Research, 2009) The percentage of all males over the age of 8 in the UK that play PC games is 39%, and for females it is 31%. 35% of the UK population plays PC games. (GamesIndustry.com Research, 2009) Total sales of all videogames software amounted to £1.621 billion in 2009 in the UK alone (ELSPA, January 2010) Nintendo Wii sold more than 18 million units of software in the UK in 2009 (ELSPA, January 2010) 6.7 million consoles were sold in the UK in 2009 (ELSPA, January 2010) The gross sales for all video game software and hardware for the UK in 2009 generated £3.3billion in sales (ELSPA, January 2010)

The value of Video Gaming

The video games industry holds a value of $50billion (Financial Times, November 2009) One of 2009’s most popular games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, sold almost 5m copies in a single day, taking in more money that the film ‘Dark Knight’ took on it’s opening weekend in the US (which is the record holder for first weekend sales in the US) (Financial Times, November 2009) A PricewaterhouseCoopers report in 2008 entitled "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008-2012" stated that the international games industry is expected to rise to $68.3billion by 2012, a compound annual growth of 10.3% (GamesIndustry.biz) EMEA, the largest region for the games industry at $18.1 billion in 2008, is projected to grow by 6.9 percent compounded annually through 2013 to reach $25.3 billion, narrowly ahead of Asia Pacific (PricewaterhouseCoopers "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013" report)

Consumer & Retail Facts

Consumer spending on video games will grow by 6.6 percent on a compound annual basis from $17.7 billion in 2008 to $24.5 billion in 2013. (PricewaterhouseCoopers "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013" report) 91% of UK game retailers answered “yes” to the question “Are you confident in the health of your business as we move into 2010”, and only 1% answered “no” (MCV UK, December 2009) In 2008, Q4 games industry spending in the UK was £139m (MCV UK) Modern Warfare 2 topped the Amazon.com entertainment chart for sales in 2009, the first time a video game has done so (ELSPA, January 2010)

Advertising Facts

Video game advertising is expected to grow by 14.9 percent on a compound annual basis from $400 million in 2008 to $800 million in 2013. (PricewaterhouseCoopers "Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013" report) Valve’s FPS games Counter Strike and Counter-Strike: Source peak at over 150,000 concurrent users each day, despite being 9 and 5 years old respectively and offer in game advertising.