PGC London 2025 approaches as UK player spending hits record $1bn in single year on mobile

Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025 is right around the corner, a two-day conference at the forefront of the games industry with 31 tracks, over 900 companies and more than 2,750 attendees set to gather next week.

Of course, PGC London is also the place to be for our unveiling of the Top 50 UK Game Makers, an opportunity to celebrate the best of the best the industry has to offer and to crown the UK’s greatest video game pioneers.

In advance of this year’s event, we’ve taken a look at the latest key data surrounding the UK games market, including the region’s biggest players, where, exactly, the money’s flowing, and the industry’s performance across consoles.

Starting with mobile, 2024 marked the UK’s third consecutive growth year in player spending, surpassing a record $1 billion gross for the first time ever based on AppMagic estimates.

This figure exceeded 2023’s $922 million in player spending and even the market’s previous record of $964 million during the height of the pandemic in 2021.

Among the top-performing games, Roblox earned the most revenue from UK gamers in 2024 at over $85 million gross on mobile alone, followed by Candy Crush Saga and Royal Match at $69 million and $66.5 million respectively.

While mobile spending grew to new heights last year, the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association noted that the overall video games market declined by 3.3% in 2024, dragged down by a 35% fall in boxed game sales. Reportedly, the UK video games market recorded a total worth of $4.6 billion for the year – still more than double the value of the growing music industry – and saw 12% growth in subscription services.

Mobile remained the UK’s largest single segment, estimated by the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association to be worth over $1.5 billion.

“After the breakneck growth of recent years, it is no surprise that the games market has slowed down, but it remains a giant. Despite the attractions of digital business models to developers, we believe physical still has a role to play,” said Digital Entertainment and Retail Association CEO Kim Bayley.

And though boxed game sales were down overall, of course some games still sold better than others. EA Sports FC 25 was the highest-selling boxed game in the UK last year, as highlighted by GamesIndustry.biz based on Nielson GfK data, while Warner Bros’ Hogwarts Legacy and Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 followed in second and third.

Nintendo was the most prevalent games company in the upper echelons of the UK’s boxed games market, meanwhile, with its titles ranking fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 10th. Three of those entries were Mario titles, led by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a 2017 title which has persistently held its position as the best-selling Switch game of all time.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Party Jamboree both made the UK’s top 10 of 2024 despite releasing in September and October of that year respectively.

Striking it rich

Of course, the UK isn’t just responsible for its share of players splashing cash on games; it’s also home to many major games companies like London-based Woodoku developer Tripledot.

In 2024, we named Tripledot among the Top 50 Mobile Game Makers worldwide, in the same year that three of its senior executives landed in The Sunday Times’ first ever Gaming Rich List.

Dublin-based games studio Playrix saw founders Igor Bukhman and Dmitry Bukhman topped the Gaming Rich List. Playrix’s hits include the likes of Gardenscapes and Homescapes, which AppMagic estimates have earned a combined $10.6 billion gross.

Also in the UK’s top 10, King’s Riccardo Zacconi, Mel Morris and Sebastian Knutsson ranked third, seventh and ninth respectively. The Candy Crush maker is currently gearing up for its first global launch since 2021, with Candy Crush Solitaire’s UK debut now close upon the horizon.

2024 also marked 10 years of Candy Crush Soda Saga, once intended as a replacement to King’s flagship, but coming to run parallel, and helping bolster the series to over $20 billion in lifetime revenue.

“The UK gaming industry has become a Great British success story of recent years, creating thousands of jobs and contributing strongly to economic growth,” said Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times’ Gaming Rich List.

“Making a fortune while playing or creating video games may sound like living the dream to many young people. This Rich List tells the rags to riches stories of people who have done exactly that.”

Bigger and better

2024 was also another active year for raising funds and bolstering initiatives to grow the UK’s games sector, with the likes of UK studio Radical Forge receiving $2.6 million to expand its team and create new jobs, Into Games raising £100,000 to confront class disparity in industry jobs, and BBC Studios hiring its first global director for gaming and interactive.

Meanwhile, Supercell effectively established a new office in central London via its acquisition of Space Ape Games, and the UK unveiled Silicon Sands, an initiative to transform the seaside town of Blackpool into a brand-new tech zone.

Entering 2025, Space Ape executive Simon Hade has already headed up a new spinoff studio called NextBeat, believed to have at least 14 staff. Sniper Elite developer Rebellion is readying to release Atomfall, a new game set in the English countryside.

And on the topic of upcoming games, we would be remiss not to mention Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6, which could well still be launching sometime in 2025.

All in all, the past year has been packed with activity in the UK’s games industry, both for creators and consumers of this highly popular medium.

And despite a slight decline in overall spending through 2024, the data points to an increasing shift in the tide towards downloadable titles, whatever the platform, with mobile spearheading earnings through its record performance.

As 2025 gets fully underway, with plenty of surprises surely ahead, what better place to kick off another year in this bustling industry than at Pocket Gamer Connects London 2025.