UK entertainment sales boom during lockdown

UK entertainment sales boom during lockdown with entertainment sales increasing in 2020 by 16.8% to £9.05 Bn according to preliminary data compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). It was the fastest growth rate since records began, driven above all by digital services, who saw revenues increase by £1.4 Bn over 2019 to a new high of £7.8 Bn.

Digital video services spearheaded by Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video increased revenues by a remarkable 37.7% over 2019 while growing music streaming subscriptions saw recorded music revenues score their best result since 2006. Gaming comfortably retained its lead as the largest of the three sectors, generating sales of more than £4bn for the first time.

Overall more than 80 pence in the pound spent on entertainment now goes to digital services rather than physical formats. Amid generally declining physical formats, vinyl LPs remain the shining exception, increasing sales by 13.3%.

Music has best result since 2006

The music market grew by 6.8% in 2020 to £1.55 Bn, its highest total since 2006. Most of the growth was driven by streaming services including Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Deezer and YouTube Music. Streaming revenues grew by 15.5% to £1.21 Bn, more than the entire music market was worth as recently as 2016.

Lockdown listening did not benefit sales of downloads, however, with revenues down 19.5% to £72.2m. Also down were CD sales, hit by the closure of physical stores during lockdown with revenues of £156.2m, 28% less than 2019. In contrast vinyl continued its strong revival with sales up 13.3% to £110m. Vinyl now accounts for more than 40% of the physical music market.

Most popular album of the year was Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent which generated a total of 455,914 sales.

Most Popular Albums 2020
	Title	Artist	Equivalent sales
1	Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent	Lewis Capaldi	455,914
2	Fine Line	Harry Styles	293,435
3	Future Nostalgia	Dua Lipa	265,042
4	When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go	Billie Eilish	239,879
5	Heavy Is The Head	Stormzy	222,791
6	Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon	Pop Smoke	222,052
7	No 6 Collaborations Project	Ed Sheeran	217,939
8	Greatest Hits	Queen	193,495
9	The Greatest Showman	Motion Picture Cast Recording	190,864
10	Diamonds	Elton John	189,752

Source: Official Charts Company. Includes physical sales, downloads and streams

The digital video market grew by 37.7% in 2020 to £2.9 Bnn as viewers flocked to services from the likes of Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Sky’s Now TV and Apple TV+. Games overtook video to become the UK’s biggest entertainment sector as long ago as 2013 when sales reached £2.3 Bn. In 2020 revenues were £4.2bn, a leap of 14.5% on 2019, and the first time it has breached the £4 Bn threshold. More details on video and the games market can be found in the full report which can be downloaded here.

The ERA is the trade association representing the vast majority of retailers and digital services offering music, video and games. Its members range from independent record shops (Reflex, Sister Ray) to digital services (Spotify, Google, Sky, Deezer, Virgin) to internet retailers (Amazon) to specialist High Street operators (HMV, Game) and supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons).