Market Update: Digital entertainment grew 7x faster than the UK economy – London Business News – Full Analysis

Back in 2025, the general UK economy grew by 1.3%. The UK’s digital entertainment sector, however, hit £13.5 billion in revenue in the same year, a 7.1% YOY growth. Comparing these figures alone suggests that the digital entertainment industry is growing 7x faster than the general economy.

Both figures have been fetched from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) and the Office of National Statistics. And honestly, they confirm what many of us already expected. Digital leisure is slowly becoming the new form of traditional entertainment.

Where the growth is coming from

Gaming, video, and music drove most of these gains. The UK games market alone was worth around £7.6 billion in 2024, which is already thriving, as it’s up double what it was a decade ago. Driving its value is in-game purchases, which actually account for 76% of all online game revenue globally.

Online entertainment platforms are playing a major role in such a shift. Operators across the digital leisure space now compete against each other on ease of access, mobile experience, and promotional strategy. We see this a lot in the online bingo industry. For example, bingo providers use bingo promotions to lower the barrier to entry to new players, offering welcome deals that let players try their services before they commit.

It’s the very same model that streaming services and food delivery apps use. Streaming services, for example, use free trials, known as ‘try before you buy’ offers. Food delivery apps, on the other hand, usually offer first-time order discounts. As you can see, they all follow the same direction: ‘Try this for free or at a discounted price, and see what you think before any commitment.’

Consumer habits are splitting

Justin Ng / Avalon

According to Savills’ 2026 leisure report, UK consumers are going out less often. However, when they do, they spend more. It’s a pattern that researchers are describing as “frugality in routine paired with willingness to invest in high-value experiences”.

Simply, people are cutting back on casual leisure activities and focusing more on experiences of value. For example, they’re saying “no” to pub visits with friends and “yes” to live events and quality dining.

What’s interesting about this, however, is where digital platforms sit. They seem to be offering that missing part of the puzzle. They provide low-cost, on-demand entertainment that fits around your digital lifestyle.

Deloitte’s Consumer Tracker backs this up. Their Q4 2025 data showed that betting and gaming spending rose by 2 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, while long holidays dropped by 8 points.

What this means for the sector

With the UK economic growth forecasts being 7x lower than the digital entertainment space, we imagine those in the sector are going to see some healthy revenue changes. Though Brits are valuing more quality and expensive experiences, they happen much less. Filling this gap is a low-cost leisure alternative which is digital.

For those in the industry, the number spells out an opportunity that’s hard to miss. More spending equals more opportunities. For consumers, it confirms what their spending most probably already shows: that digital leisure is quickly becoming the main type of a large part of their lives.

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