World Cup Fever Heats Up Euro Toy Market

With less than two weeks before the inaugural game on June 18, nearly £11 million or $14.76 million has been spent in the U.K. on soccer and World Cup-themed toys including Match Attax, Trump Cards and Panini Moscow stickers.

As the home of the Scottish and English Premier Leagues, experts attribute the nation’s response to national pride. In 2016, 24 million toys, cards and stickers were sold in the U.K. throughout the UEFA 2016 European Championship, a total of £26 million in retail sales.

Sales of cards, stickers and toys reached just £15 million in France, the championship finalist, and £12 million in Germany.

Top five best-selling football-related toys in the U.K., week ending May 19, 2018

World Cup-themed sticker packs currently appear in the top 10 best-selling toy products in France, where they are No. 1 and Spain where they are No. 8. Two of the top three best- selling toys in Belgium during the third week of May were Panini sticker packs.

“The last significant football event—the UEFA 2016 European Championship—had a huge impact on the toy industry,” says  Frédérique Tutt,  global industry analyst, toys, the NPD Group. “More than 24 million football-related toys were sold in the U.K.; that’s 6 percent of all the toy sales by volume in the country that year. So far in 2018, football-related toy sales total £11 million – that’s including Premier League-related toys too. And in the most recent week that we have data for, the seven days ending 19th May, £921,000 was spent on football-related toys—that’s almost £5,500 an hour. With one in eight toys sold in the UK in the third week of May being football-related, the next few weeks will give the toy sector a welcome boost.”

Top 10 best-selling toys in £ by market value – week ending May 19, 2018

When examining Europe as a whole, the study found that the U.K., France and Belgium lead at £2.50 in every £100 spent on toys, followed by Germany at £1.70 and Spain at £1.20 in the week ending May 19.

“Sales of football-related toys almost double in Euro and World Cup years, showing just how important the sport is to the toy sector,” says Tutt. “This makes football unique in terms of its impact on toy sales as other regional and global sports competitions such as rugby, tennis and even the Olympics have yet to make a similar effect on sales.”