UK government announces £ 30 million Games Growth Package

12 May 2026

Is the next Counter-Strike coming from the United Kingdom? Or the next Grand Theft Auto (GTA) perhaps? With the recent announcement of the £ 30 million Games Growth Package by the British government, who knows?

Just a few days ago at the time of writing, the Government officially launched their brand-new Games Growth Package. It consists of the UK Games Fund, currently valued at £ 28,5 million, plus another £ 1,5 million for the 2026 London Games Festival, which took place from April 13th to April 19th. The Package was created to boost the UK esports sector, with the London Games Festival serving as a global showcase for British talent and investment over the coming years.

Various stages

Though the recently announced Games Growth Package, the Government has reserved no less than £ 28,5 million for the British gaming industry. Or to be more precise, for newly-formed and expanding developers to turn blueprints for games into reality, and to sell their creations not only in the United Kingdom, but all around the world. It will provide three types of grants:

• Entry Track: up to £ 20.000 per grant, for newly formed companies with strong potential.

• Emergent Track: up to £ 100.000 per grant, for prototyping new games.

• Expansion Track: up to £ 250.000 per grant, for completing games and enabling studios to scale up.

Taking gaming seriously

The Games Growth Package is the next major step taken by the British government in acknowledging gaming and esports in the UK not only as an industry with potential, but as an industry with considerable immediate value. It comes on top of other initiatives that have been taken around the region in past years, including increased support for the sector from the British Business Bank and the UKRI research body and generous games tax relief.

“Video games are not only great fun, they are big business – and for too long their value to the British economy has been overlooked”, says Ian Murray, British Minister fro Creative Industries, “That is why the government has thrown its full support behind the sector with £30 million of new funding. This will turbocharge the careers of some of our most talented game developers, creating more jobs and economic growth right across the country as their ideas come to fruition.”

UK Esports Advistory Panel

Around the same time as the announcement of the new Games Growth Package, the Association for UK Interactive Entertainment, better known as Ukie, created their UK Esports Advisory Panel. This is a new industry-led forum that was created with the goal of providing structured, evidence-based engagement between Government and the esports sector, bringing together senior voices from publishers, teams, events, grassroots and education. Or in other words, “a single trusted voice to help Government get esports right”, as the Ukie puts it themselves. The Panel consists of twenty members, including the likes of Daniele Schmidt-Fischer (Senior Policy & Public Affairs, Ukie), Andy Payne OBE (Chair of the British Esports Federation) and Charlie Allen (EMEA Director, Riot Games).