Circana, the market research firm that tracks retail checkouts, reported that dollar sales of toys in the United States rose 17% from January through June compared with the same months a year earlier. Unit sales climbed 12%, and the average price per item crept up 4%. It was the strongest opening half of a year in six years, though not a record for total revenue.
The people driving that jump are not who the industry used to chase. Brands of every kind, from trading card publishers and film studios to an online casino game developer and streaming services, now compete for the attention of grown fans who buy for themselves. Households made up only of adults accounted for 55% of toy spending in the period, and adult spending alone grew 25%.
Why the Spring Numbers Surprised Retailers
Most buyers’ guides had predicted a flat year. Tariff worries pushed some stores to trim orders in the winter, and parents were reported to be cautious about expensive gifts. Instead, shelves emptied faster than planners expected, and several chains reordered popular lines before April ended. Store managers described a steady pull through ordinary weekdays, not the usual spikes around birthdays and holidays, with adults in work clothes lining up at the glass case on Tuesday afternoons.
Where the Growth Actually Came From
Circana pointed to trading cards, collectibles and merchandise tied to sports as the main engines. Eight of the eleven supercategories it tracks grew, but the spread between them was wide.
Categories That Moved the Most
Explorative and other toys led the board with a 58% gain, followed by games and puzzles at 45%. Building sets rose 22% and arts and crafts 20%. Action figures and accessories grew a more modest 10%, which is still a healthy number for a segment that many analysts called mature.
Licensed products, meaning toys tied to films, shows and sports leagues, grew 24% and made up roughly 39% of all US toy sales through June. That share explains why a single movie release can change a retailer’s quarter.
| Category | Growth in the first half |
| Explorative and other toys | 58% |
| Games and puzzles | 45% |
| Building sets | 22% |
| Arts and crafts | 20% |
| Action figures and accessories | 10% |
Three habits show up again and again in how collectors spend, based on the retail data and trade coverage of the period.
- They buy sealed boxes and packs, often several at a time, hoping for a rare insert.
- They follow release calendars closely and queue or preorder on launch day.
- They treat a purchase as part of a hobby with its own community, not as a single gift.
The Teenager Factor
Purchases for ages 12 to 17 rose 33%, the sharpest increase of any age band in the data. A teenager with a weekend job and a phone full of drop alerts behaves very differently from the child a toy aisle was designed for. Trading cards fit that profile well, since a pack costs a few dollars and the chase feels immediate.
Retailers noticed. Several large chains moved card racks closer to the registers and added locked cases for premium items, a layout change that would have looked odd five years ago. Some also began holding trade nights in the store, where teenagers swap duplicates under the eye of a staff member who knows the market. Distributors described the same shift in their own terms, with reorders arriving in smaller but far more frequent batches, a sign that shops were restocking weekly instead of once a month. The change also nudged warehouses to hold more of the fast movers close to the stores that sell them.
What Fans Say About Prices
The average selling price rose only 4%, so the sales surge was mostly about volume rather than higher sticker prices. Collectors on fan forums still grumble about scalpers and limited runs, yet they keep coming back. For many of them a monthly budget for the hobby is as normal as a streaming subscription. Secondary markets tell a similar story. Graded cards and sealed sets trade on auction sites within hours of a release, and the gap between shelf price and resale price has become a topic of its own. Fans compare notes on which items hold their value and which fade after a week, and that conversation keeps the hobby busy between launches.
That pattern matters for anyone planning the second half. Holiday lines will be judged against a very tough comparison, and manufacturers know that matching a 17% rise is unlikely. Even a smaller gain would leave 2026 as one of the better years in recent memory, and the fan communities that carried the spring look ready to carry the autumn too.