The New Anchor Tenant: Why Competitive Socialising Is Taking the Space Retail Left Behind
Shopping centres across Europe are replacing empty units with social gaming venues. Here is what the data shows – and what it means for operators in the category.
Walk through most major European shopping centres today and you will find something that was not there five years ago: a darts bar, a shuffleboard concept, a multi-activity venue built around games and food and drink. The units that once housed mid-market fashion brands and department stores are being converted, refitted, and handed to a new category of tenant. Competitive Socialising is becoming the anchor tenant of the modern shopping centre.
The numbers behind this shift are significant. According to Savills’ Competitive Socialising Brand Tracker, the UK alone now has around 800 Competitive Socialising venues, up 58% since 2018 (see source below). Multi-activity concepts – venues that combine several game formats under one roof alongside a full food and drink offer – grew from just 11 sites in 2018 to 84 today. The sector’s forecast is for 1,100 sites across the UK by 2030, with multi-activity brands accounting for 75% of that total.
58% growth in UK competitive socialising venues since 2018, from around 500 to 800 sites. – Savills Competitive Socialising Brand Tracker (see sources below)
Why landlords are actively recruiting this category
For shopping centre landlords, competitive socialising solves a problem that retail cannot. A fashion retailer needs passing footfall to convert. A social gaming venue generates its own footfall – and crucially, it keeps that footfall on-site. Groups that arrive to play spend two to three hours in the venue. They eat, they drink, they book again. That is a fundamentally different commercial proposition from most retail tenants.
Liverpool One, one of the UK’s most visited urban retail destinations, now hosts five competitive socialising brands: Junkyard Golf, Gravity Max, Roxy Ballroom, Escape Live, and an esports venue. Flight Club is set to open there too. Birmingham’s Bullring and Grand Central estates are actively expanding the category. These are not fringe or secondary locations. They are the best-performing retail assets in their cities, and they are making space for social gaming.
The format that fits
Not every competitive socialising format is equally well-suited to a shopping centre environment. The most successful concepts in this setting share a few characteristics: they are compact enough to work within standard unit sizes, they are accessible to walk-up visitors without prior booking, and they pair the game with a strong food and drink offer that extends the visit.
SHUFL Tech and FLYBY Darts are designed around exactly those principles. The footprint is manageable – SHUFL Tech takes up roughly the space of a pool table, FLYBY Darts a standard dartboard bay. Walk-up play requires no prior experience and low staff involvement to get started. And both formats are built for the combination of play, eat and drink – the natural intervals in the game create the right moment for another order without interrupting the experience.
The window is narrowing
Savills forecasts that multi-site brands will account for 75% of the competitive socialising sector by 2030. The independents’ share of the market has already fallen from 50% to under 40% since 2018. The operators establishing positions in the best locations now are the ones who will define the category in their markets.
For venue operators, landlords, and property developers evaluating this category, the question is no longer whether Competitive Socialising belongs in a shopping centre. It is which formats, and which operators, will take the space.
TSGG’s social games, SHUFL Tech and FLYBY Darts, are designed for commercial venue environments including retail and mixed-use developments.
Sources:
→ Savills: Competitive Socialising – A Booming Sector (april 2024)
→ Savills Brand Tracker via Completely Retail (2024)
→ Savills: European Prime Shopping Centre Rents 2026 (2026)
