Frances games market grew 18 per cent last year to a colossal $5.3bn.

That's according to data from the region's trade body, using the new ISFE game sales data programme, which says that the PC games market accounted for $1.4bn in revenue.

That's up six per cent year-on-year, driven by an increase in hardware and accessories sales. That sector brought in $785m in total; hardware rose 10 per cent year-on-year, with accessories rising double, 20 per cent.

Hard bargain 

Growth in the PC games sector was driven by hardware and accessories. On the software side of things, there is no real growth. Digital game sales were flat year-on-year, showing the stability of that particular market, with physical games dropping 14 per cent.

The big areas of growth in France were console games - rising 23 per cent year-on-year - which made up 31 per cent of the market.

Handheld games, including mobile, rose 22 per cent from 2016.