U.S. Licensed Toy Sales Increase 7%

Retail sales of toys in the U.S. generated $18.08 billion in 2014 compared to $17.46 billion in 2013, an increase of 4 percent, according to the NPD Group.

April 6, 2018

Licensed toys, which represented 31 percent of total industry sales, experienced an increase of 7 percent in 2014 compared to 2013.

Click here to read about 2014 toys sales in Great Britain

Retail sales over the 2014 holiday shopping season got off to a bumpy start, with the weeks of Black Friday and Cyber Monday experiencing mixed results of -2 percent and 1 percent (compared to the same time periods in 2013). However, with one extra shopping day the week of Christmas compared to last year, Christmas week grew 27 percent, lifting December growth to 6 percent. Fourth quarter sales (October–December 2014) were up 3 percent.

“From Black Friday week to the week before Christmas, holiday toy sales were looking relatively flat,” says Juli Lennett, president, toys, the NPD Group. “But with the procrastinators shopping in droves the days before

Christmas, perhaps aided by plunging gas prices, the toy industry experienced a merry Christmas after all.”

In terms of category performance in 2014, building sets and youth electronics experienced the most significant increases at 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively, followed by action figures and games/puzzles, both increasing 9 percent. Infant/preschool toys and all other toys were the only categories to experience dollar sales declines when compared to 2013 (-5 percent and -0.4 percent, respectively).

Looking at top toy properties, Disney’s Frozen captured the top spot overall as well as was the top gainer among all toy properties for the year based on absolute dollar growth, generating $531 million in 2014. While Frozen did not capture the top spot in any of the 11 toy categories NPD tracks, the property was represented in 39 different toy categories.