Toys Trends from 2022: What have kids been playing with?
As December comes around once again, children all over the world will be writing their Christmas Wish Lists to send to the North Pole, filled with all the toys they so desperately want from 2022. Whether these toy purchasing decisions are driven by the children themselves, or by parents wishing to stimulate the development of their children, 2022 has seen some interesting trends in the toy market.
But what exactly have children been playing with, and wanting to play with over the last 12 months? Keep reading to find out what the biggest toy trends have been throughout 2022.
Toy Trends: Throwing it back with some retro vibes
This year, as children write those all important Christmas lists, parents all over the world might be doing a double take, as they initially confuse the letters their children have written to Santa with the ones they will have written themselves as children. This is because of the rise in retro children’s toys we’ve seen, in particular, over 2022. Take Hot Wheels, for example. Despite being in circulation since the late 60s, Mattel recently reported a 26% rise in overall gross billings for the toy cards.
Whether it’s brands like Barbie, vintage favorites like Barrel of Monkeys or gadgets like tamagotchis, so many of the brands that parents loved as children are making a comeback amongst younger generations. Even one of the most traditional toys for children, the puzzle, has been steadily growing in popularity throughout the last few years. The sale of puzzles alone caused one of the highest growth rates in the children’s toy sector, with a jump of 38% in just Europe. The success of these more retro or vintage brands illustrate how toys that were once popular with parents, are now equally popular with children in 2022.
Toy Trends 2022: Montessori Toys
Playtime has long been acknowledged as an important factor in the development and socialization of young children. Given that toys are tools, it is no wonder that more and more parents are opting for experience driven toys to stimulate their children during playtime. One such school of thought that incorporates this adoption of toys and playtime is the Montessori Method. Montessori encourages children to develop their sense of self, as well as their communication skills and productivity. While this method has been in existence for nearly 75 years, the school of thought has recently gained popularity with parents across America, with more than 4,000 Montessori schools in existence across the country.
Popular toys like climbing triangles and ramps are examples of Montessori toys, as they encourage children to become more familiar with their surroundings as they explore the toy. Like these climbing triangles, any toys that children can touch, hold and manipulate in order to solve problems have been seen in playrooms throughout 2022, making Montessori toys a firm 2022 trend.
Toy trends: Value Driven
Whilst toys are used to stimulate both fun and development for a child, toys can also be used to communicate the more important topics in our society. When surveyed about what parents use their childrens’ toys to educate them on, the study found that serious world issues such as bullying, cultural representation and even racial injustice are all tackled by purchasing value driven and inclusive toys. Further research has found that 80% of children would like to play with more toys and characters that look like them. As a result, one of the most significant toy trends from the last 12 months has been a demand for toys that are suitable for children of all abilities and backgrounds.
Toy giants LEGO have cottoned onto this trend, and have even created a new branch of their Friends Universe with 8 new characters to better represent all children that play with LEGO. Similarly, recent reports have shown that the sales of children’s books that feature a minority ethnic character has increased by over 10% in the last few years.
Sensory Toys are trending
One trend that’s completely taken over both online social media platforms and stocks of toy stores has been sensory and ASMR toys. ASMR, which stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, has seen a popularity boom over the last few years. Even though this particular trend was started online, on platforms such as TikTok, it is still very much reflected in the buying behavior of both parents and children alike.
This trend can be used to explain the purchasing behavior of light up toys (often used by children to express their moods), as well as fidget toys, which are predicted to grow in popularity even further by 2028.
One toy that seems to be leading the sensory and ASMR toy trend is the Squishmallow. Made unique by their ultrasoft texture, Squishmallows come in a range of different designs and styles. The breadth of this range further compounds their popularity, as children are motivated to purchase and collect as many squishmallows as possible.
Sustainably Made and Ethically Sourced Toys
As well as urging their children to play with toys that reflect the social issues of today, so too are they prioritizing the purchase of toys that have been produced and created with the protection of the earth in mind. Particularly after the pandemic and how strongly it highlighted our relationship with the natural world, the demand for both sustainably made and ethically sourced childrens’ toys has been on the rise over the last few years.
For example, earlier this year Playmobil announced their new Wiltopia product line. This range is made from recycled plastic and was awarded the most successful new launch in the Sustainable Toys sector in 2022. Similarly, Mattel is creating product lines to meet rising consumer interest in sustainably made toys, and is now making Barbie dolls out of recycled plastics. It is data based decisions like these to follow such trends that formulate the $104 billion pivot across the global toy industry to move away from plastic products, and towards more sustainable alternatives.
Movie and TV Franchise merchandise
With countless reboots, remakes and reimaginings of classic kids movies being released over the last year, each one has also brought with it a host of toys and merchandise, all designed to further immerse children into the fictional worlds they watch on the screen. Earlier this year, Toy World Magazine dubbed 2022 ‘the year of the movie licensed toy’. So aptly named due to the fact that licensed toy sales for the year accounted for 30% of all toy sales: the highest figure for over a decade. Productions such as the latest Marvel Movies, the culmination of the Jurassic Park franchise with ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’, as well as the next installment in the Minion universe with ‘Minions: The rise of Gru’ have all brought with them tidal waves of merchandise and toys that have proven popular with children.
