HMRC’s Video Games Tax Relief has paid £1.48 billion to UK games companies since 2014

• The latest figures reveal that the payouts have actually increased with 2023 paying out £68 million more than was paid in 2022

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New HMRC data shows VGTR has paid out £1.48bn plus previous reports have been update to reval that payouts increased by nearly £70m between 2021-2022

Those generous numbers comes courtesy of freshly released government data, with the £1.48 billion total being promptly leapt upon by UK trade body TIGA who pushed hard for the introduction of the money-spinning boost aimed at giving the UK games industry a leg up.

Interestingly, while times may still appear to be tough, the latest figures reveal that the payouts have actually increased with 2023 paying out £68 million more than was paid in 2022.

Give us a break

At the time, while other countries (both European and in the States) had already provided their games industries with tax breaks, the UK – a country with a rich and prodigious development heritage – had yet to do so and as such was in danger of projects and talent moving abroad.

It’s thought that since its introduction in 2014, Video Games Tax Relief has helped create or keep thousands of skilled development jobs in the UK – something borne out by the latest figures which show that UK dev staff has increased from 10,900 people in December 2014 to over 24,000 in April 2023.

Updates and upgrades

Initially HMRC’s 2023 Creative Industry Statistics report stated that VGTR payouts had dropped by 6 per cent to £189 million in financial year 2021-2022. However, HMRC now says in its 2024 report that in fact VGTR payouts rose by 18 per cent to £257 million.

Instead of a £12m drop in VGTR payouts, HMRC now records a £40m increase in VGTR payouts, from £217 million in 2020-21 to £257 million – the largest recorded annual revision by HMRC since the Relief became available in 2014.

The proportion of claims worth over £500,000 increased from 78 per cent in financial year 2022 to 87 per cent in financial year 2023 while claims under £50,000 decreased from 5 per cent in financial year 2022 to just 1 percent in financial year 2023, despite representing 42 per cent of total claims. 

Dr Richard Wilson OBE, TIGA CEO, said: “Our studios have relied on VGTR to help us compete on a more level playing field when other territories such as Canada, France and many US states offer more generous incentives than the UK’s. This revised data shows that VGTR is being accessed by more and more games companies with greater production values every year.”

“VGTR has played a critical role in driving growth in the UK video games industry, Employment in our industry grew from 10,900 development staff in December 2014 to over 24,000 in April 2023. Video Games Expenditure Credit (VGEC), which is replacing VGTR, must be kept competitive if we are to continue to attract foreign direct investment and maximise employment growth in our video games industry.”

Photo by Sarah Agnew on Unsplash