Global Toy Market Reaches €106 Billion as Europe Consolidates Its Position as the World’s Second-Largest Region

Toys are no longer a business driven exclusively by children, Christmas and birthdays. The industry's customer base is broadening, its geographical centre of gravity is gradually changing and entertainment franchises are becoming increasingly important to sales.

Circana's latest global analysis estimates that the toy market generated $123 billion in sales during 2025, equivalent to roughly €106 billion, representing annual growth of 8%. The figures confirm a significant rebound after several difficult years for manufacturers and retailers.

But the headline growth number tells only part of the story.

Behind it lies a structural transformation in who buys toys, where demand is expanding and which categories are attracting consumers.

Europe remains one of the pillars of the global toy industry

Europe continues to occupy a central position in the sector.

Circana's global study identifies the continent as the second-largest toy market worldwide, supported by mature retail networks, comparatively high spending per child and major consumer markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. Its 2026 Global Toy Report analyses market development across Europe, North America, Asia, South America, Africa and Oceania.

The European market also benefits from an unusually strong industrial ecosystem.

Denmark's LEGO Group is one of the world's most influential toy manufacturers, while Germany hosts companies including Ravensburger and Playmobil manufacturer Horst Brandstätter Group. Italy, France, Spain and other European markets also support extensive networks of manufacturers, distributors and specialist retailers.

This combination of purchasing power, established brands and sophisticated distribution makes Europe particularly important for the global industry, even as faster demographic growth elsewhere gradually shifts the balance of demand.

2025 marked a broad-based recovery

The industry's recovery was unusually widespread.

Across the 12 major markets monitored through Circana's Retail Tracking Service—Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States—sales increased 7% in value during 2025.

Units sold rose 3%, while the average selling price increased by a similar percentage. Most strikingly, all 12 monitored countries recorded growth, something Circana had not previously observed simultaneously.

The Netherlands registered the strongest increase, at 15%, while Brazil recorded the smallest gain, at 2%.

The figures indicate that the rebound was not simply the consequence of inflation or higher prices: consumers were also purchasing more toys.

Europe's major markets joined the rebound

The improvement was visible across Europe's principal toy economies.

France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom all participated in the expansion recorded by Circana during 2025.

This represents an important change after a period in which inflation, pressure on household disposable income and elevated inventories created difficult conditions for the sector.

The recovery also illustrates the resilience of toys as an entertainment category. When manufacturers succeed in connecting products with cultural phenomena, popular franchises or collecting communities, demand can extend well beyond households with young children.

That is becoming increasingly important because Europe's demographic profile presents a long-term challenge for a business traditionally dependent on the child population.

The toy industry's new customer: adults

Perhaps the biggest structural change is taking place outside the children's market altogether.

Teenagers and adults are becoming increasingly important toy consumers, giving rise to the industry term “kidults”.

Circana identifies consumers aged over 12 as one of the principal forces reshaping demand, particularly in categories including construction sets, trading cards, games, plush toys and collectibles. During the first half of 2025, the company said growth among older consumers was consistently outperforming traditional children's trends.

The significance for manufacturers is enormous.

An industry historically constrained by birth rates and the number of children in each household can now expand by targeting consumers throughout much more of their lives.

A 30- or 40-year-old buying a premium construction set, a collectible figure or trading cards is effectively enlarging the addressable market without requiring demographic growth.

Nostalgia becomes a commercial strategy

Adult demand is closely linked to another powerful force: nostalgia.

Entertainment properties that consumers first encountered as children can remain commercially relevant decades later. This gives established intellectual property an unusually long lifecycle.

Franchises spanning cinema, television, videogames, anime and comics can generate products aimed simultaneously at children, teenagers and adult collectors.

That helps explain why licensed merchandise has become increasingly important.

Circana's 2025 analysis identified pop culture, collectibles, licensed products and kidult demand among the principal drivers behind the industry's rebound.

For manufacturers, intellectual property is consequently becoming as important as the physical toy itself.

Pokémon and Hot Wheels demonstrate the power of global franchises

Circana's annual industry awards provide a clear illustration.

For 2025, Pokémon was named the world's leading toy property, while Mattel's Hot Wheels Singles 1:64 Assortment was identified as the global top-selling toy. LEGO was recognised as Global Toy Manufacturer of the Year.

These results reveal three important characteristics of the contemporary toy business.

First, globally recognisable intellectual property can travel across national markets. Second, collectibles encourage repeated purchases rather than one-off transactions. And third, brands with multigenerational recognition can appeal simultaneously to children and adults.

That combination creates a particularly powerful commercial model.

Building sets continue their remarkable expansion

Construction toys are another major growth engine.

In 2025, building sets recorded their sixth consecutive year of growth, increasing sales by 18% across Circana's monitored markets. Games and puzzles grew even faster, rising 30%.

The strength of construction sets is closely connected with the industry's widening demographic reach.

Products in this category can range from inexpensive children's sets to sophisticated models costing hundreds of euros and designed primarily for adults.

That gives manufacturers considerably greater pricing flexibility while allowing retailers to serve multiple consumer segments within a single category.

Football is becoming another toy-industry growth engine

Sport is also emerging as a major opportunity, particularly relevant to European markets.

Circana reported that global sales of football-related toys increased 160% in value through April 2026 across its 12 monitored markets. Football products increased their share of sports-related toy sales from 4% to 9%.

Trading cards represented 44% of those sales, followed by construction sets with 25% and collectible figures with 12%.

The trend demonstrates how major sporting events and football fandom can be monetised across multiple toy categories.

For Europe—home to many of the world's most commercially valuable football clubs and competitions—the crossover between sport, licensing and collectibles creates a particularly attractive opportunity.

Asia is changing the global competitive landscape

While Europe and North America remain mature pillars of the industry, Asia is becoming increasingly important.

The region combines enormous child populations in several markets with rapidly expanding middle classes, sophisticated digital commerce and powerful entertainment ecosystems.

Japan has long been one of the world's most influential sources of toy and character intellectual property, while Chinese companies are becoming increasingly visible internationally, particularly in collectibles and designer toys.

The spread of anime culture, blind-box formats and character-based collectibles illustrates how Asian consumer trends can increasingly influence demand in Europe and North America.

This movement works in both directions: Western entertainment franchises remain powerful in Asian markets, while Asian intellectual property is gaining a much larger global audience.

Latin America offers a different growth proposition

Latin America occupies a smaller share of the global market but offers substantial long-term potential.

Brazil and Mexico are already among the 12 markets directly tracked by Circana. Both recorded toy-sales growth during 2025, although Brazil's 2% increase was the weakest among the G12 countries.

The region's attraction lies partly in demographics.

Compared with many European economies, several Latin American markets have younger populations, providing a larger traditional consumer base for children's products. Rising urbanisation, e-commerce and the expansion of international retail formats can also increase access to global brands.

At the same time, lower purchasing power, currency volatility and import costs can make affordability a much more important competitive factor than in Western Europe.

The global toy market is becoming less dependent on demographics

The geographical and generational changes are interconnected.

In emerging economies, growth can still come from expanding middle classes, younger populations and increased spending per child.

In mature economies such as Europe, where birth rates are low, manufacturers need another formula.

The rise of adult collectors provides precisely that.

Instead of relying exclusively on the number of children, companies can increase revenue by expanding the definition of who a toy consumer is.

Circana describes this transformation as the evolution of play into a form of entertainment, creativity and social connection across different age groups.

A €106 billion industry increasingly connected to entertainment

The broader consequence is that the boundaries separating toys from other entertainment industries are becoming less clear.

Videogames generate collectible figures. Films generate construction sets. Football produces trading cards. Anime creates plush toys and collectibles. Social-media trends can transform obscure characters into global commercial phenomena almost overnight.

Manufacturers are consequently competing not simply for children's toy budgets, but for consumers' wider entertainment spending.

This also changes the competitive advantages required to succeed.

Product design and manufacturing remain essential, but licensing agreements, intellectual property, digital marketing, fan communities and the ability to identify cultural trends are becoming increasingly decisive.

Europe faces an opportunity—and a demographic challenge

For Europe's toy industry, the current transformation has particular strategic importance.

The continent remains the world's second-largest regional market, possesses internationally recognised manufacturers and benefits from consumers willing to spend on premium, educational and collectible products.

But low birth rates mean traditional children's demand alone may not provide sufficient long-term growth.

Kidults, collectors, licensed entertainment and premium products therefore represent more than temporary trends. They offer European manufacturers and retailers a way to partially decouple industry growth from demographic decline.

At the same time, increasing competition from Asian brands and rapidly changing consumer trends will force established European companies to innovate faster.

Toys are becoming a lifelong consumer category

The central conclusion from Circana's data is that the toy industry is not simply recovering—it is changing its economic model.

Worldwide sales reached approximately $123 billion (€106 billion) in 2025, with annual growth of 8%. Europe retains a leading global position, emerging markets provide new geographical opportunities and adult consumers are expanding the industry's addressable audience.

The old assumption that consumers eventually “grow out of toys” is becoming less useful for understanding the market.

Collectibles, construction sets, trading cards, gaming franchises and nostalgia-driven products are turning play into a category capable of accompanying consumers from childhood into adulthood.

For an industry historically dependent on children, that may be the most important growth opportunity of all.