News

Toys, games segment enjoying consistent increasing sales growth

Don’t write off traditional games and toys in light of video games just yet as the retail category enjoyed a 3.6 percent global sales boost in 2014, according to new Euromonitor International research data.

June 17, 2015

Don’t write off traditional games and toys in light of video games just yet as the retail category enjoyed a 3.6 percent global sales boost in 2014, according to new Euromonitor International research data.

The segment, in overall global sales, including video games, hit $151 billion last year. Traditional toys and games increased 2.1 percent, video games grew more than double that, with 5.7 percent growth.

The big global sale hotspots are North America and Western Europe. In terms of types of toys, construction toys and toys-to-life product lines are the hottest.

Toys-to-life are collectible figures that turn into a playable character in a computer or video game and the concept is proving popular with children and older shoppers as well. It’s likely only bound to grow in popularity and sales given that LEGO is moving into the digital game market this year.

“Communication, mobile and computer technology has had an effect on all aspects of consumer behavior including play time, which explains why video games and toys-to-life have performed so well,” said Senior Toys and Games Analyst Mykola Golovko in a news release. “As the line between physical and virtual worlds is growing even thinner, the growing popularity of products such as Skylanders and Disney Infinity will continue.”  

The global toys and games market is projected to enjoy a 2.7 percent compounded annual growth rate from 2014 to 2019.