Streamed and retail entertainment sales grew four times faster than UK economy in 2025

07 January 2026 - Press release

Music, video and games revenues up 7.1% to £13.3bn

  

Streaming services and retailers grew UK revenues from music, video and games by 7.1% in 2025 to a new all-time-record of £13,257.3m, according to interim annual figures published today (January 7) by digital entertainment and retail association ERA.

This was more than four times the 1.5% GDP growth predicted for the UK economy by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and marks a sharp upturn in growth for the music, video and games sector compared with 2024.

Entertainment sales have grown by more than 120% over the past 10 years, 10 times faster than the UK economy which has grown just 12% over the same period.

Broken down by sector, revenue from games grew more than seven times more than the UK economy over the same period (+86%), music grew more than 10 times (+124%) and video more than 14 times more than the UK economy (+171%).

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, "This result vindicates the transformational role of streaming services and retailers in driving the entertainment sector to new heights, thanks to a potent combination of technology, investment and innovation. While conditions may be tough in the wider economy, streaming services and retailers are winning a greater share of consumer spending and proving their central role in the UK's creative economy, driving revenues for musicians, filmmakers and games developers."

Entertainment's 7.1% growth rate in 2025 was more than double the growth seen in 2024 (+3.3%) and the fastest growth seen since the pandemic year of 2020 (+24.1%).

Video revenues increased by 8% to £5,438.8m, their highest growth rate since 2022. Games grew by 7.4%, their fastest growth rate since the pandemic year of 2020. Music was up 4.2% with physical formats up a remarkable 11.5%. This comes in sharp contrast to the modest growth see in UK retailing overall.

The combined value of the music, video and games sectors is now nearly double the £6,728.4m they recorded as recently as 2017 and 66% higher than the last pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Kim Bayley said, "Approaching five years after the first lockdown when entertainment revenues leapt an extraordinary 25% in a year, it is now clear that it was more than a blip. It marked a long-term shift in entertainment spending which streaming services and retailers have solidified with a string of innovations."

ERA has published the definitive statistics on the value of the UK music, video and games sectors every year for the past 26 years

UK ENTERTAINMENT SALES 2025 (£m)
		2023	2024	2025	% change vs 2024
Music	Physical	£311.0	£330.1	£368.1	11.5%
	Downloads	£42.7	£41.3	£39.9	-3.5%
	Streaming	£1,871.9	£1,982.4	£2,045.4	3.2%
	Total Music	£2,225.6	£2,353.9	£2,453.3	4.2%
Video	Physical Retail	£169.7	£156.3	£148.9	-4.7%
	Physical Rental	£5.9	£4.5	£3.2	-29.5%
	Digital	£4,615.9	£4,875.6	£5,286.8	8.4%
	Total Video	£4,791.5	£5,036.4	£5,438.8	8.0%
Games	Physical	£491.8	£322.1	£318.8	-1.0%
	Digital	£4,477.8	£4,671.8	£5,046.4	8.0%
	Total Games	£4,969.6	£4,993.9	£5,365.2	7.4%
Total Entertainment	Physical	£978.4	£813.1	£838.9	3.2%
	Digital (inc streaming)	£11,008.3	£11,571.1	£12,418.4	7.3%
	Total Entertainment	£11,986.7	£12,384.2	£13,257.3	7.1%

 

MUSIC
Sales of streaming subscriptions and music product reached a new all-time-high of £2,453.3m in 2025. Revenues from streaming subscriptions increased 3.2% to £2,045.4m. Physical music sales grew 11.5% to £368.1m, propelled by an 18.5% increase in vinyl revenues and a 95% increase in other physical formats (predominantly cassette) to £4.6m. CD revenues were flat (down 1%) to £125.0m.

Physical formats increased their share of music revenues to 15%, their highest share since 2021.

For the second year running Taylor Swift produced the biggest-selling album and biggest-selling vinyl album of the year with The Life Of A Showgirl with sales of 642,469 albums, 147,382 of them on vinyl. The biggest single of the year was 'Ordinary' by Alex Warren which generated the equivalent of 2.18m sales.

2025 saw a strong showing by emerging UK artists such as Olivia Dean, Lola Young and Skye Newman, amid a combined effort by digital services, retailers and record labels to support homegrown talent.

Said Kim Bayley, "Streaming services in the UK fund around 60 different programmes supporting music, with a third of them focussing on new and emerging UK talent. Record shops too are playing their part, promoting more than 4,000 instore and outstore performances a year, the majority of them featuring UK artists. Streaming services and retailers are committed to supporting new UK music and the emergence of a new wave of UK artists is vindicating their approach."

 

VIDEO
For a second successive year, video was the largest of the three sectors surveyed by ERA, with growth increasing to 8% (2024: 5.1%) to reach £5,438.8m.

Streaming-video-on-demand services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix saw revenues increase 8.8% to £4,904.5m while the value of film downloads increased 7.4% to £202m. Sales of physical video formats of video including DVD and Blu-ray declined 4.7% (2024: -8%)  to £148.9m, their slowest rate of decline since 2010. Blu-ray (inc 4K UHD) reinforced its position as video's strongest physical format with sales of £84.2m compared with DVD's £64.7m.

The biggest-selling title of the year was Wicked with sales of 983,119, a substantial increase on 2024's biggest seller Deadpool & Wolverine (561,917).

Said Kim Bayley, "Thanks to the investment and innovations of streaming companies the video business is now nearly the twice the size it was at the height of the DVD boom in 2004 (£2.95bn). Video is arguably the best example of the transformational power of streaming to deliver choice, convenience and accessibility. Meanwhile there are promising signs in the physical format market with a sharp fall in the rate of decline as studios and retailers lean into physical's distinctive benefits of quality and collectability."

 

GAMES
The games sector scored a stunning 2025, growing 7.4% to £5,365.2m, achieving more in 12 months than it did in the four years between 2021 and 2024 (+6.7%).

A key factor was an 8.8% increase in revenues from mobile and tablet games to £1,881.5m, accelerating the 5.5% growth seen in 2024. There was also strong 11.5% growth in full-game console downloads to £857.6m.

Sales of physical console games stuttered, down 1.0% to £318.8m.

Nonetheless games remains the last bastion in entertainment of ownership rather than access models. Nearly half of games revenues (45%) are generated by fans paying to buy rather than access them, compared with 16.6% in music and just 7.2% in video.

The biggest-selling game of the year was EA Sports FC 26 with more than 1.97m units sold across digital and physical formats.

Said Kim Bayley, "Growth in the games market slowed considerably after the incredible 27.9% gains seen in the pandemic year of 2020, but continuing innovation saw it return to form in grand style in 2025. We have strong hopes that it will maintain this momentum into 2026."