Global Toy Sales Grow 1% as Unit Sales Decline
A Target associate zones the toy department in 2021 | Source: Target Corp.

We’ve reached the halfway mark of 2022, but there has been a conspicuous absence of public-facing data released for U.S. toy industry performance this year.

The reality, as most in the industry are aware, is that the explosive growth of the past two years has finally stalled. Double-digit increases just aren’t sustainable in any industry and the pandemic-fueled toy industry success story of 2020 and 2021 was, frankly, an unexpected side effect. The toy industry is reactive, and some swift moves across the board positioned the industry to capitalize on a resurgence of play as families spent more time together.

Now we’re hitting normalization amid inflation.

According to a recent blog post by The NPD Group’s Frédérique Tutt, vice president, industry analyst, toys, global toy sales grew by just 1% in the first four months of this year. Compared to pre-pandemic, 2019 levels, sales are still up but overall unit sales are down 5% offset by a 7% increase in the average selling price, per NPD.

As noted in the 2022 Classic Play issue of the Toy Book: “fewer toys are being sold for more money.”

But the sky is not falling, so there’s no need to sound the panic alarm.

Related: Supply Chain Struggles Continue as U.S. Toy Industry Prepares for Additional Challenges

The past two years have been loaded with skewed numbers in every industry, and what goes up will most certainly come down … to an extent.

First quarter earnings season arrived alongside updated guidance and a very positive outlook for the back half of 2022. All of the publicly traded toy companies — Mattel, Hasbro, Funko, Spin Master, and Jakks Pacific — echoed each other in kicking off the year with a bang.

Looking ahead toward the holiday season and the inevitable reactive pivots ahead, one hot category to watch will be collectibles. Tutt notes that the category is still booming, with one out of every five toys sold globally in the first four months of the year considered to be a collectible.

And coming out of last month’s Licensing Expo, there will be no shortage of great collectibles in the pipeline for release in the months and years ahead.

About the author

James Zahn

James Zahn

James Zahn, AKA The Rock Father, is Editor-in-Chief of The Toy Book, a Senior Editor at The Toy Insider and The Pop Insider, and Editor of The Toy Report, The Toy Book‘s weekly industry newsletter. As a pop culture and toy industry expert, Zahn has appeared as a panelist and guest at events including Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC) Wizard World Chicago, and the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy. Zahn has more than 30 years of experience in the entertainment, retail, and publishing industries, and is frequently called upon to offer expert commentary for publications such as Forbes, Marketwatch, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA Today, Reuters, the Washington Post, and more. James has appeared on History Channel’s Modern Marvels, was interviewed by Larry King and Anderson Cooper, and has been seen on Yahoo! Finance, CNN, CNBC, FOX Business, NBC, ABC, CBS, WGN, The CW, and more. Zahn joined the Adventure Media & Events family in 2016, initially serving as a member of the Parent Advisory Board after penning articles for the Netflix Stream Team, Fandango Family, PBS KIDS, Sprout Parents (now Universal Kids), PopSugar, and Chicago Parent. He eventually joined the company full time as a Senior Editor and moved up the ranks to Deputy Editor and Editor-in-Chief.

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