The UK is a diverse and mature digital entertainment market. Across the three main pillars of video streaming, online gambling and video gaming, the sector made somewhere between £19 billion and £22 billion in 2025, depending on whose estimates you go by. Regardless of the exact number, most will agree that is a big business.
Yet the market is never static. Regulation, changing consumer trends and new technologies are constantly redefining the online entertainment space, and keeping the UK competitive in a global market. Some of the biggest developments of the year include rule changes in the fast-growing and very popular gambling sector, shifting dynamics in the global videogame business and a huge milestone point in the fight for viewers between broadcast media and online content.
Gambling is the Country’s Biggest Online Entertainment Sector (By Some Metrics)
It might surprise you to know that gambling is the biggest online entertainment sector by revenues, and up there by number of monthly customers. There are some caveats to that, as data isn’t always clear.
But there are some points we can be certain of. According to the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, online gambling revenue in the UK hit £7.8 billion in 2025.
Another is the sheer number of operators and players. Sites like Casino.org are popular with UK players looking to compare their options in a packed market with a lot of competition. A quick browse of their pages for the UK market – with reams of details on bonus terms, payment speeds, game collections and rewards systems – shows you just how much detail players go into when picking their casino.
Average non-gamblers might not ever think about it – but gambling has just as much a dedicated community of reviewers and online resources as music or film fans do.
Another good metric to measure is total players. According to UKGC data there are 15 million active online gamblers in the UK in any one month, across sports betting, online casinos and poker. That is actually far less than the estimated number of monthly UK videogame players, which is around 37.7 million. But only around 11 million of those video game players regularly play and spend money on online games.
So if you count specifically online only gaming, the gambling business still has video games beat on that metric too.
In terms of 2026 changes to this status, few expect gambling revenues to fall off anytime soon. However increased regulation and a rise in online gaming taxes have some concerned for the long-term future of the business at this scale.
Videogames Aren’t Far Behind Though
The UK videogame business was estimated at £8.76 billion in value in 2025. However, unlike gambling there isn’t a clear figure for revenues. The best estimate, (minus console sales, spin offs, merch and other side channels) is around £5.4 billion spend.
So it’s either just ahead, if you count everything in the business, or just behind gambling if you only count direct online sales. Videogame players also outnumber gamblers, but not online players.
The videogame business has been growing globally, but it is facing some headwinds. The rise in price of graphics processing units (GPUs) due to huge demand and purchasing power from AI tech companies has made consoles and games more expensive, and gamers are becoming more selective with their purchases.
Although many AAA titles have flopped globally in recent years, there have been breakout indie hits – and GTA VI is still expected to break opening week sales and revenue records in the UK when it hits shelves in late 2026.
Otherwise free to play games still dominate the market in terms of online gameplay. Which is why player numbers are similar to online gambling, but casinos and betting make more revenue – a lot of players play Fortnite or Roblox for free, while only a few whales spend big money.
Streaming and TV are Changing as Fast as Ever
One of the biggest changes for online entertainment in the UK in 2026 is that YouTube finally overtook the BBC by number of domestic viewers. Although it had been running the public broadcaster close for some years, the American user-generated video platform hit 51.9 million monthly viewers in January, beating the BBC’s 50.9 million.
This has sparked some controversial plans from public broadcasters including the BBC and Channel 4, who have recently lobbied the government asking them to lean on YouTube to give their content preferential treatment in UK users’ algorithms.
This proposal has been hugely debated by smaller and mid-sized British content creators on YouTube, who fear under the proposals they could be squeezed out of views on a platform they helped to make so popular.
This debate goes to show just how popular YouTube is and how important independent content creators are to the UK’s digital entertainment sector in the modern day. In 2024, YouTube content creators contributed £2.2 billion to the UK economy through taxes, employment and promotion of British culture on a global stage.
David Prior
David Prior is the editor of Today News, responsible for the overall editorial strategy. He is an NCTJ-qualified journalist with over 20 years’ experience, and is also editor of the award-winning hyperlocal news title Altrincham Today. His LinkedIn profile is here.
