Rory Partis, director UK Toys & EuroToys NPD, delves into the licensed toy category, which is having a stellar year.

Over the past few years, licensing has consistently outperformed the total toy market in the UK. Based on YTD figures from July it makes up nearly 29% of the overall toy market value, this year – that’s nearly 6% higher than at the same stage in 2019.

Rory tells Toy World that the main growth is in movies and video games (up 7% and 13% respectively against the same period in 2021).Video games is the segment with the fastest growth and it has doubled in size since 2019, now making up around 6% of the overall toy market.

“One of the key reasons for this growth has been the strength of Pokémon over the last few years; in 2022 this licence accounts for nearly half of all video games related sales,” says Rory.

He adds that though Trading Cards make up a lot of this growth, there has also been expansion into other categories with Plush, Action Figures and Games. Other popular video games licences include Minecraft, Sonic the Hedgehog and Among Us.

Movie licences have also performed strongly in 2022, growing by 22% in June and then 32% in July, helped by some of the new big blockbusters translating into toy sales. The top movie property for 2022 is Star Wars, bolstered by the streaming of many popular series such as The Manadalorian, Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. And with Jurassic World Dominion dominating at the box office, Jurassic Park is the top growth licence in the total toy market this year.

Though TV and digital properties are down 2% on last year, this segment is still about the same size in value as movies and video games combined, with notable properties such as Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Bluey and CoComelon.

To read the full article in September’s Toy World, click here.