Bristol or Liverpool for a gaming studio base, compared

What to take away

What a studio base decision actually turns on

Most creators start with rent. Rent is the smallest number in the decision.

The real question is what your business needs within a short walk or a short train ride: a camera operator, a sound engineer, an editor who understands game capture, a brand contact who takes meetings.

Bristol and Liverpool both supply those things. They supply them in different proportions and at different prices.

Write down your five biggest costs from your first year of gaming content costs and mark which ones depend on where you sit. Studio hire, editing, account management and travel usually do. Software, platform fees and equipment finance usually do not.

That split tells you how much weight to put on location at all.

The costs that move with the postcode

Four cost lines change when you move: rent per desk, studio and edit suite hire, freelance day rates, and travel to clients or events.

Two cost lines barely change: kit and software, and the platform and payment fees you pay wherever you are.

If your revenue is mostly brand deals booked through agencies, travel matters and you should weight a city with agency presence. If your revenue is mostly audience-led, your studio is your set and rent matters more.

Studio space and production costs in Bristol and Liverpool

Bristol sits in a creative and games scene with a dense production and post-production supply chain. That density shows up in price.

Liverpool runs a games and digital cluster with lower costs and a strong local events calendar for streamers and esports. That shows up in what you can afford to rent.

Both cities have converted industrial space suitable for a studio with blackout, sound treatment and a load-in door. Neither is short of small units.

Read the table as a trade, not a verdict.

A worked example

A two-person gaming channel rents a small unit with one treated room and one edit desk. In Bristol, desk rent is typically £350 per desk per month. For two desks, that is £700 a month. In Liverpool, it is typically £200 per desk. For two desks, that is £400 a month.

The channel hires a studio for two shoot days a month. In Bristol, a studio day rate is typically £400, so £800 a month. In Liverpool, it is typically £250, so £500 a month.

It also hires a freelance editor for four days a month. In Bristol, an editor day rate is typically £400, so £1,600 a month. In Liverpool, it is typically £300, so £1,200 a month.

Travel to London for meetings: from Bristol, a return train is typically £100, once a month is £1,200 a year. From Liverpool, it is typically £150, but booked ahead £90, twice a month is £2,160 a year.

The annual unit cost gap is £3,600. The shoot day gap adds £3,600 a year. The editor gap adds £4,800 a year. Travel swings £960 the other way. The total annual cost difference is £11,040.

Agency and publisher presence in each city

Agency presence decides how often you sit in a room with the people who buy creator work.

Bristol has the stronger agency and production company base of the two. Media, marketing and post-production firms cluster there, and they commission creator content for brand campaigns.

Bristol's agency scene includes McCann Bristol, Taxi Studio and Purity, with production companies such as Aardman Animations and Icon Films.

Liverpool's agency base is smaller but growing, and it leans toward games, digital and events work rather than broadcast production.

Liverpool's includes Uniform and Kenyons, with production firms like LA Productions and Hurricane Films.

Publisher presence is thin in both. UK games publishing concentrates elsewhere, so neither city gives you a short commute to a major publisher's commissioning team.

What both offer is proximity to brands that buy content. That is the useful kind of presence for a creator business.

How to test agency presence before you move

That test costs you a fortnight and tells you more than any cluster map.

Talent supply from local universities and clusters

Both cities have universities turning out graduates who can shoot, edit and code. That matters when you need a second editor or a motion designer at short notice.

Bristol's graduate supply leans toward film, animation and production. Liverpool's leans toward games, computing and music technology, with a strong events and esports volunteer pool.

Bristol's universities include the University of Bristol and UWE Bristol, with games studios such as Auroch Digital. Liverpool's include the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University and SAE Institute, with studios such as Firesprite and Lucid Games.

For a creator business, the practical difference is the bench. Bristol gives you more people who have worked on commercial sets. Liverpool gives you more people who have run live events and streams.

The UK games industry as a whole is clustered around a handful of regions, and both cities sit within reach of that wider network rather than at its centre. See the background on UK games clusters and studios for how the map is drawn.

Hiring a graduate is a supplier decision as much as a staffing one. Use the same discipline you would apply to any contractor, from fit and evidence to trial and a clear exit.

Local business support and rates compared

Business rates, grants and advice differ by council, and the difference is worth real money in year one.

Liverpool City Council publishes its business support offer, including advice services and premises help, on its business support pages. If you are weighing a Liverpool studio base, that is the first place to check what you can claim.

Bristol's support runs through its own council channels and through creative sector bodies, with more emphasis on production and screen work.

On rates, both cities sit under the same England system, so the bill depends on the rateable value of the unit and the multiplier set nationally, not on the city name. A cheaper unit in Liverpool usually means a lower bill because the rateable value is lower.

Typical rateable values for small studio units are £8,000 to £15,000 in Bristol and £5,000 to £10,000 in Liverpool. At the 2024/25 standard multiplier of 0.499, that means a business rates bill of about £4,990 to £7,485 in Bristol before relief, and about £2,495 to £4,990 in Liverpool.

For the wider economic picture, the regional accounts show how output and income are distributed across UK regions, and GVA data lets you compare how much economic output each area generates. Use them to sanity-check local claims about growth, not to pick a postcode.

Remember the tax side is national. HMRC self-assessment and VAT registration work the same in both cities, and the costs the quote forgot apply wherever you sit.

Checklist before you commit to either city

Which city fits which kind of creator business

Bristol fits creators whose income comes from agency and brand work, who need production and post-production on the doorstep, and who can carry a higher rent for a denser network.

Liverpool fits creators whose income comes from audience, memberships, live events and esports, who need space and low overheads more than they need a nearby agency, and who will use the events calendar to find work.

If you are a solo streamer with a home setup and one paid editor, Liverpool's lower costs leave more room to reinvest in kit and content. If you run a small production outfit that shoots for brands, Bristol's supply chain saves you time you would otherwise spend booking crews from elsewhere.

A third option is a split base: a cheap unit in Liverpool and a regular travel pattern to Bristol and London for meetings. That works if your work is booked in advance.

Whichever you pick, price the work properly before you sign a lease. Whether you charge a fixed fee, day rate, retainer or performance deal changes how much fixed cost you can safely carry.

Common questions