Streaming music services and digital games help entertainment double its growth rate to 6.4% in first half of 2017

London, 25 July 2017 – Music, video and games sales surged by 6.4% in the first half of 2017 compared with same period of 2016, according to figures released today by the Entertainment Retailers Association. 

It marks a sharp acceleration on the growth seen in calendar 2016 when sales grew 3% compared with 2015 

Key factor in the soaring growth was increasing take-up of streaming services from ERA members such as Spotify, Amazon and Netflix. 

Music was the star performer of the three sectors, growing 11.2% in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period of 2016. 

Music also delivered the biggest-selling title in ERA’s Entertainment Chart combining sales of music, video and games, with Ed Sheeran’s Divide selling 2.065m units, well ahead of Rogue One – A Star Wars Story with sales of 1.18m and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them on 1.032m. 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “Entertainment has now seen over four years of continuous growth thanks to a combination of digital services pioneering new ways of consuming music, video and games, and physical retailers working hard to maximise sales of discs. To now deliver another £180m worth of sales in the first half of 2017 is really extraordinary.”

Music performs best in H1 2017 

Overall entertainment sales increased 6.4% to £2.997m in the first six months of 2017 compared with £2.817m in the same period of 2016. 

Music grew fastest at 11.2%, followed by games on 8.4% and video at 1.2%.

The numbers show a continuing shift to digital formats with three quarters (75.4%) of revenues now accounted for by digital. 

The exception to the rule continues to be vinyl LPs. Vinyl sales increased 35.7% by volume to 1.9m units in the first half of 2017, with value increasing 37.6% to £37.3m.

Games accounted for just over 48% of the entertainment retail market in the first half, with video representing around one third. Music takes just under 20% of the market.

Sheeran tops Entertainment Chart in H1 2017

Ed Sheeran’s Divide has already broken countless records – including placing every track in the Official UK Singles Chart – and ERA figures now reveal it was also the biggest-selling entertainment product of the first six months of 2017. 

Its sales total of 2.065m units was nearly 885,000 ahead of the second-placed title, the video of Rogue One – A Star Wars Story.

Elsewhere in music, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s debut album Human, propelled by the single of the same name generated sales of 694,000 units to become the sixth biggest-selling entertainment product of the first six months of 2017. 

Overall, however, it was video which dominated the biggest-sellers with seven of the Top 10, including a particularly strong showing for children’s animation with Moana, Trolls and Sing all in the Top 10. 

Reflecting the fact that games publishers typically skew their biggest releases to the fourth quarter, there were no games titles in the Top 10. The highest-placed game was Grand Theft Auto V at number 13.

For More Information please contact:

Lynn Li - Lynn@eraltd.org -  Tel: 020 7440 1597

Megan Page – Megan@eraltd.org

Steve Redmond – Steve@eraltd.org

About ERA

The Entertainment Retailers Association is the trade grouping representing UK digital services and digital and physical retailers in the music, video and games markets. Formed initially as group of record retailers over 25 years ago, ERA has since grown into a broad-based advocacy group embracing many of the most dynamic and fastest-growing companies in the entertainment industry. ERA members supply the sales data which powers the Official Charts Company (music and video charts) and GfK Chart-Track (videogames). ERA also provides the organisational force behind the UK’s Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores which has become the most successful new music industry promotion of the past two decades. ERA is a strong proponent of open markets, open standards and consumer choice.