Why adults are buying toys

What's behind the boom in toy sales? If you said kids, you'd be wrong. Why is the toy industry growing after years of being in decline? Pokemon sold $2.5 billion worth of toys in the US last year. Children nowadays buy a lot less toys because digital games have replaced real ones. It's adults that are propping up the toy market now. Nearly half of British adults bought a toy this year, for themselves or another grown-up. For under 35s, it's 3 in 4. What's behind the change? Adults now account for 28.5% of global toy sales. In Europe's biggest toy markets, their share of spending has more than doubled in a decade. And in the US, adult-only households make up the majority of toy sales. The people buying toys aren't parents anymore. They're adults with no kids, and they're buying up all sorts of toys. Action figures, trading cards, squishies, Legos, you name it. This is what my colleague's desk looks like. There are now trendy toy items that people spend thousands of dollars to get, similar to the Labubu toy craze. Those were mostly bought by Gen Z and millennials. That's because the toy makers figured that grown-ups have more disposable income and hooked them through something called blind boxes, where regardless of the outcome, whether they get the toy they wanted or not, they're compelled to go back and buy another box. The gamble is part of the fun, which keeps people addicted. Because of all the spending on the toy market, Build-A-Bear saw its stock rise over 2,000% since the lows of the pandemic. Four in 10 of its customers are now adults and teens. Toys R Us, which went bankrupt in 2018, is making a comeback and is planning to open up 120 new stores across the US. This time, they're also catering to their highest spending customer, adults. But what's driving grown-ups to splurge on toys? Toy collectibles are disguised as an investment and have achieved some level of special acceptance for the grown-ups purchasing them. There is also an element of impulsivity. I'm But mostly people are nostalgic starting and they want to return to simpler times to escape the chaos of today. And for a generation priced out of buying a house, at least a toy is something they can afford. to speak now.