UK video game sales now 80% digital Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. UK video game sales now 80% digital Get the download. News by Wesley Yin-Poole Deputy Editorial Director Updated on 3 Jan 2019 272 comments 80 per cent of UK video game sales are now digital, new figures have revealed. The Entertainment Retailers Association said of the £3.86bn generated by the video game market in the UK in 2018, £3.09bn was from digital and £770m was from physical sales. Digital rules video game sales in the UK. That digital revenue figure, which includes microtransactions, DLC, subscription services, pay-to-play as well as individual game sales, is up 12.5 per cent year-on-year, while the physical revenue figure is down 2.8 per cent. Overall, the total game sales revenue figure is up 9.1 per cent year on year. The shift from physical to digital for the video game market has been a slow but inevitable one, but the split when it comes to unit sales varies depending on the video game. The biggest-selling console game of 2018, FIFA 19, sold 2.5m units, according to the ERA, with 75 per cent coming from physical formats. So, for big mainstream triple-A video games such as FIFA, physical is still very much the driving force behind unit sales revenue. However, for pretty much everything else, digital dominates. Indeed, even for FIFA, the split is trending towards more digital sales. This year, 25 per cent of FIFA 19 sales were digital. Last year, 20 per cent of FIFA 18 sales were digital. (FIFA 19 sales are down around 200,000 units on FIFA 18, incidentally, but if more sales were digital, publisher EA will have taken home more of a cut overall.) Overall, the ERA's data paints yet another grim picture for the physical video game sales market in the UK. GAME, for example, has responded to declining sales by trying to refocus on esports and user "experiences". And it's worth remembering the ERA tracks video game sales only. It does not track hardware. So, its figures for the UK industry do not include revenue generated by sales of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One or Nintendo Switch. Here's the 20 biggest-selling video games in the UK in 2018, physical only (digital not included): FIFA 19 (EA) 1,889,401 Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar) 1,757,212 Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 (Activision) 1,172,855 Marvel's Spider-Man (Sony) 676,621 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo) 458,675 Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft) 434,133 Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy (Activision) 430,551 God Of War (Sony) 399,395 Forza Horizon 4 (Microsoft) 392,960 FIFA 18 (EA) 351,788 Grand Theft Auto 5 (Rockstar) 339,805 Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Activision) 333,725 Battlefield 5 (EA) 313,100 Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Ubisoft) 305,937 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo) 284,155 Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo) 240,710 Call Of Duty: WW2 (Activision) 230,576 Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (Nintendo) 227,767 Shadow Of The Tomb Raider (Square Enix) 226,125 Fallout 76 (Bethesda) 218,534 Oh, and if you're wondering, the best-selling entertainment product in the UK last year was The Greatest Showman, which shifted 2.6m copies. It's hard to compete with Hugh Jackman, after all! Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Modder dives into Demon's Souls files following PS5 jailbreak, discovers fabled Ring of the Chieftain Who knows what's nexus? 4 Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 11 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open-back headphones are just £70 at Amazon in the Prime Early Access Sale Comfortable with neutral sound and a wide sound stage. Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. 1 Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store