Next Generation Households: How Playtime Evolves to 2022

New parents will shift the demographics of future households

While millennials have largely delayed starting a family to get other affairs in their life in order, this will change over the next few years as they finally start to have kids. This will create smaller households with parents who have more time and money to spend on their kids, and create opportunities for new technologies to transform playtime for children.

Households will become more hi-tech and connected
New households, especially in developed markets, are likely to have much more connected households, with smartphone-enabled appliances and smart speakers that react to voice commands. Children will grow up seeing this technology as normal, which will impact what they expect from traditional toys.

Children will look to new, smarter toys
As children will have access to new technology at an earlier age they will look to have smarter toys that can work with the tech in their life. In addition, the influence of technology will also push parents to increase their child’s STEM skills, in particular technology.

New technologies will lead to further age compression
The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other computers will likely lead children to move from traditional toys to video games and electronics at an earlier age. In addition, new products such as streaming consoles and AR/VR headsets will further age compression amongst children.

Greater media access will lead to greater licensing fragmentation
The growing access to media that smartphones and increased internet access provides has also increased the number of avenues for new licenses, from streaming video games to other media platforms. This will increase the number of licenses children will be interested in, diluting the influence of major intellectual properties.