U.S. Toy Industry Sales Up in First-Half 2022

The U.S. toy industry saw a 2 percent increase in sales to $11.4 billion for the first half of the year, according to The NPD Group.

“While the toy industry has pulled back to growth of 2 percent, this is remarkable as only 6 of the 14 industries that NPD tracks posted growth at all in the first half of 2022 following two years of extraordinary consumer spending,” said Juli Lennett, U.S. toys industry advisor. “This speaks to the resiliency of the U.S. toy industry during these uncertain economic times.”

Unit sales declined 6 percent, and the average selling price (ASP) increased 8 percent to $11.30, somewhat in line with the annual inflation rate. ASP was up 6 percent growth last year and 19 percent the year before.

The 2022 spending growth follows two years of record-breaking sales in 2021 and 2020, when the U.S. toy industry sales increased 20 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

Outdoor and sports toys continued to be the largest supercategory, with $2.7 billion in sales. Plush had the largest dollar gain, of $301 million, and the fastest dollar growth, of 43 percent.

“Despite what appears to be some challenging times ahead for the U.S. consumer, I expect the toy industry to continue to outperform other general merchandise categories for the remainder of the year,” said Lennett.