The toy and game industry isn’t shrinking; it’s growing. Circana’s 2026 Global Toy Report puts worldwide toy sales at $123 billion in 2025, up 8% year-over-year, continuing a steady climb since 2020.

For sellers, the operational reality hasn’t fundamentally changed in years: success comes down to running a genuinely multichannel operation, not picking the one “right” platform. The biggest shift for most retailers over the past decade has simply been moving sales and fulfillment to a multichannel model. That’s still true today.

Licensed merchandise and franchise tie-ins

Nostalgia and franchise appeal remain some of the strongest forces in the category. Licensed toys now represent a record share of the global market, around 37% in recent tracked data, with double-digit growth tied directly to entertainment franchises.

For sellers, this means staying close to what’s trending in film, TV, and gaming is still one of the more reliable ways to spot demand early, nostalgia-driven product lines included.

Toys aren’t just for kids anymore

One of the clearer shifts in the category is who’s actually buying. Children under 10 still account for the majority of global toy sales, but their share is gradually declining. In developed markets like the US, teens and adults now drive most of the incremental growth, with adult-recipient toy sales up 18% in the US in 2025 alone.

Collectibles, action figures, and adult-oriented games and puzzles are a real and growing part of the category, not a niche curiosity.

Reselling toys in marketplaces

Toy resellers working with Amazon need to know the platform’s rules around merchandising and licensing rights. Counterfeit goods are where Amazon draws a hard line, but reselling genuine, name-brand items is legal and generally fine as long as you’re not infringing on licensing or brand restrictions specific to certain categories.

What this means for your operations

A few things matter more than ever if you’re selling toys and games online:

• Inventory visibility. Inventory control and visibility is no longer a luxury. It’s as integral to operations as electricity.
• Flexibility across channels. Almost every seller sells in more than one place. That’s why it’s vital to be sure your inventory is flexible enough to adapt and react to sales cycles on different channels.
• Quantity sync. If you resell toys, keeping quantities accurate and up to date across every sales channel matters more than in most categories, since birthday and holiday gifts make this a highly time-sensitive purchase.
• Demand planning. This is especially important for resellers whose supply may not always be consistent by product. You need to stay aware of buying cycles so you’re not left with dead stock.
• Reporting. Knowing what types of merchandise have sold well historically helps with forecasting what’s likely to sell well next, so you can plan ahead and protect your margins.
• Stay on top of rules and regulations. Toy safety regulation is tightening, not loosening. The EU’s new Toy Safety Regulation (2025/2509) took effect January 1, 2026, with full application phasing in through 2030, and it raises the bar on areas like chemical safety and digital compliance documentation. Recalls remain a real reputational and seller-performance risk, so this isn’t a box to tick once and forget.

For the operational side of actually running this kind of business, from sourcing and pricing to choosing marketplaces and software, see our complete guide to selling toys and games online.

In conclusion

Children (and adults) love toys and always will. There will always be people wanting toys and people buying them. The main thing that keeps changing is how buyers find and interact with brands, and sellers who stay close to that shift tend to do well regardless of where the broader market is headed.

Ready for next steps? See our guide on selling toys and games online to help set your business up.