Insight
To monitor what’s happening in the ever-changing toy market, Circana collects point-of-sale information from all major toy retailers. This information, combined with our analysts’ industry perspectives, delivers a comprehensive view of what’s selling and where. We also field over 12m consumer surveys annually to help industry leaders understand why consumers shop where they shop and why they buy what they buy. For more information visit www.circana.com.
Stiff upper lip! Tough economic conditions in 2023 mean that the UK Toy market has struggled to reach growth, but as everything is reset for 2024, there is potential for the year ahead.
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t’s challenging to write a review of 2023 UK Toy market performance when, at time of writing, the biggest sales weeks of the year are still to come; week 50 and 51, which can account for up to 11% of annual toy sales. Given the tough economic conditions in 2023 across all industries, even a strong last three weeks will not be enough to push the UK Toy market into growth for the year. Based on the sales data available, the UK Toy market is down -5% in value YTD November 2023 and -9% in volume. This is not only in-line with the rest of the Europe, which is down -5% in value, but also represents a stronger performance than the US toy market, which is down -9% in value for the first eleven months of the year. In addition, UK toys is still up +1.6% on YTD November 2019, which was pre-Covid, as the average selling price (ASP) increased from £8.70 to £10.32 over the same time-period. This increase in ASP is not purely down to inflation, but also as a result of product mix changes in the UK toy market over the last four years. Building Sets is a key category which has grown from 12.7% of the UK toy market to 17.2% and has the highest ASP for a supercategory in the UK. One of the strongest declines for the UK market in 2023 was in the Outdoor and Sports Toys supercategory, which is down -16% in value, due to the wet weather impacting sales in July and August, usually the strongest months of the year for the category.
to outperform the rest of the market, accounting for 32% of all toy sales. This strong performance spanned many categories, especially Building Sets, Dolls, Plush, Vehicles and Explorative and Other Toys where licences have gained share. Overall, Pokémon, Disney All Other (including Disney 100 lines), Star Wars and TMN Turtles have all performed well, while in the pre-school arena, Gabby’s Dollhouse and Bluey continued to grow.
Melissa Symonds
Over the last four years, properties with TV/DVD/Digital Streaming content remain the top entertainment source, accounting for 18% of sales in 2023. Pre-school properties dominated this area of the market with Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Gabby’s Dollhouse and Bluey top performers along with Disney Princess and Monster High. Properties with movies have also grown in the last three years, with Barbie and TMNT the top winners in this space for 2023, alongside DC and Marvel Universe constant offerings. The biggest growthf- not in the last year but over the past four years ;FQZJ –only >9) 3T[JRGJW [X - has been from Video/Digital Games properties, which has more than doubled its share within UK toys. Pokémon and Minecraft remain the top properties in this sector. a smaller share of the market, Sports related Although properties have seen consistent growth, particularly with football related items.
Director UK Toys, EuroToys Circana boosted the category in 2023 with MGA’s Miniverse one of the top new properties of the year.
Another area of the UK toy market that saw a strong performance last year was Kidults (sales of toys for consumers Aged 12+). Kidults accounted for 31% of sales in the first three-quarters of the year, up from 25% in the same time period in 2019 and growing +10% in value in 2023. Kidult growth has driven some the stronger performing specifically Plush, Games and Building categories in 2023, Sets.
UK Entertainment Type Attributes
While the top-line performance for UK toys is down versus 2022, there were several areas of the market which saw a strong performance last year. Licences continued
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UK Entertainment Type Attributes
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