NPD Predicts Toys to Continue to Outperform Other Categories for Remainder of 2022

U.S. Toy Industry Sales Up 2 Percent for First Half of 2022

The following article is based on a press release issued by The NPD Group on August 11, 2022.

August 12, 2022 | U.S. toy industry sales grew by 2 percent, reaching $11.4 billion, from January through June 2022, according to the latest sales report from The NPD Group.

While the growth to date in 2022 has been somewhat tempered, it comes after two years of record-breaking sales in 2021 and 2020 when U.S. toy industry sales increased 20% and 18%, respectively. The average selling price of $11.30 was up +8%, which the NPD reports is somewhat in line with the annual inflation rate. This is, however, on top of 6% growth last year and 19% growth the year before.

"Following two years of explosive growth across product categories beyond all predictions, the toy industry still showed resilience returning to a more normal pace of growth in the first half of 2022 while outperforming a wide range of consumer product industries," said Steve Pasierb, president & CEO at The Toy Association. "The closing months of the year are always vital, our companies are offering so many wonderful new and innovative play products, and in both good and bad economic times it has been proven that adults want the kids in their lives to celebrate with holiday gifts and presents under the Christmas tree."

Four of the 11 supercategories tracked by NPD posted growth in 2022. Compared to 2019, ten supercategories posted a positive 3-year CAGR. Outdoor & Sports Toys continued to be the largest supercategory with $2.7 billion in sales. Plush had the largest dollar gain of $301 million and the fastest dollar growth of 43%.

“While the toy industry has pulled back to growth of 2%, this is remarkable as only 6 of the 14 industries that NPD tracks posted growth at all in the first half of 2022 following two years of extraordinary consumer spending,” said Juli Lennett, U.S. toys industry advisor at The NPD Group. “This speaks to the resiliency of the U.S. toy industry during these uncertain economic times.”

For the Plush supercategory, Squishmallows, Magic Mixies, and Disney were the main drivers of growth. Squishmallows had 7 of the top 15 selling toys for the total toy industry YTD January-June 2022. Explorative & Other Toys grew 28%. NBA, NFL & MLB dominated the growth in the category with sports trading cards. Action Figures & Accessories also grew double digits. With the release of Jurassic World: Dominion in June, the Jurassic World property had the largest growth, followed by Funko Pop! and Sonic the Hedgehog which also had a movie release in April. Lastly, Building Sets was up 8% with LEGO Star Wars driving the largest amount of growth followed by LEGO Creator Expert and LEGO Technic.

*Source: The NPD Group/ Retail Tracking Service, January-June 2022.