UK consumers bought over £1 Bn discs in 2021 featuring music and video and games according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA). These figures are from their recently published ERA Yearbook 2022 and defied expectations amid the streaming revolution.
Sales of physical formats amounted to £1.05 Bn, down 18.5% on 2020, to comprise just 11% of the overall entertainment market, but in unit terms that still represented more than 50m discs sold. Some segments bucked the trend with vinyl LPs continuing their growth, up 23.2% to £135.6m.
| Britain’s most popular physical entertainment formats in 2021 (£m) | ||
| Home console software | GAMES | 507.8 |
| DVD | VIDEO | 150.5 |
| CD | MUSIC | 150.1 |
| Vinyl LP | MUSIC | 135.6 |
| Blu-ray | VIDEO | 85.7 |
| 4K UHD | VIDEO | 23.6 |
| Vinyl singles | MUSIC | 3.3 |
| PC software | GAMES | 2.1 |
In volume terms there were 16m DVDs and 15.1m CDs sold, bringing the total of physical discs sold during the year to more than 50m.
Kim Bayley, ERA CEO said, “Amid all the excitement about digital formats, it’s easy to forget that physical is still a huge business. That £1 Bn total represents more than 50m individual buying decisions. While digital offers convenience, many people still value the quality and sense of ownership discs can offer.”
Despite the decline in disc sales the UK ended 2021 with more than 4,200 physical stores selling music, video and/or games.
The ERA Yearbook which contains 108pp of detailed statistics on the UK entertainment industry is freely available for download here.
