Global toy industry report from NPD reveals highest impact on annual sales came from the US

Port Washington, NY, June 15, 2022 – According to The NPD Group’s latest global toys report, global toy market sales reached $104.2 billion in 2021, an increase of 8.5% versus 2020, and 12.7% versus 2019, making it the best performance in the last 10 years.

As in 2020, growth was driven by developed countries with the most impact coming from the U.S., which saw a year-over-year increase of 15%. Developing markets started to recover in 2021 but did not manage to overcome the 2020 decline or reach pre-pandemic sales levels.

Despite sales growth in 2021, the Asian market remained behind 2019 sales, with the gap between North America and Asia increasing five times compared to 2019. However, even with a slow recovery, Asia is the second fastest growing region when compared to 2016, increasing 11%. North America experienced the fastest growth, increasing 51% since 2016.

Growth was driven by strong performance of the 10 largest markets, with these 10 countries representing 76% of global sales in 2021. The toy market remains very concentrated within the U.S. and China, both capturing close to 50 percent of global sales.

The global spend per child aged 0 – 9 increased to $59, up from $56 in 2020. Spend per child in Asia, Africa, and South America remains below the global average.

“The global toy market’s unprecedented growth in 2021 was driven by sales in developed countries, which were better equipped to face the pandemic thanks to strong government support, as well as easier and earlier access to vaccinations,” said Frédérique Tutt, global toys industry analyst at The NPD Group. “However, we don’t anticipate this level of growth to continue as the global economy slows down and inflationary pressures increase.”

Methodology
World markets are measured and estimated based on The NPD Group’s Consumer Tracking Service and Retail Tracking Service from 14 countries currently tracked by The NPD Group: U.S., China, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Netherlands, Portugal, and data provided by IMF and World Bank.

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