Games sector gives lift to entertainment sales

Britain’s physical entertainment market is back in growth thanks to a “stellar” performance from the games sector, a new report today shows.

Kantar Worldpanel’s latest research reveals that the industry overall has grown for the first time since August 2014 – up 2.2 per cent, year-onyear. The games market grew sales by 26 per cent, offsetting declines of 5.4 per cent and 4.8 per cent in music and video respectively.

Amazon remains the largest retailer for physical entertainment, growing its share by 0.3 percentage points yearon-year to hold 20.8 per cent of the market. Meanwhile, HMV made a solid gain – increasing market share by 2.3 percentage points to stand at 18.1 per cent.

Olivia Moore, analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, said: “It’s been a great quarter for games – a real bright spot in the physical market’s struggle against the rise of digital. Meanwhile, Blu-ray saw 15,000 new shoppers during the latest quarter.”