STEM Opportunities in Toys and Games: Mass-market vs Speciality Appeal

STEM is a high growth area in traditional toys, with a heavy developed market tilt

STEM toys have outperformed the traditional toy market nearly every year, and are expected to continue to do so over 2016-2021. Sales of STEM toys are largely coming from developed markets, where parents are increasingly taking a more active role in their child’s education and trying to prepare them for college and careers that will be in demand in the future.

Mass and speciality STEM toys compete for parents who invest heavily in toy research and others who want to entertain and educate

While many developed parents are interested in STEM toys, some are more focused on researching exactly what sort of educational benefits a toy can bring to their child, while others are satisfied with only slight educational benefits so long as the toy is affordable and entertaining. This has created a market for speciality STEM toys, which heavily market their STEM skill development capabilities, and mass-market STEM toys, which may have some educational benefit but do not primarily market on it.

Mass STEM leads the global STEM toy market, but speciality STEM will see gains over 2016-2021

Mass-market STEM represent a larger portion of the total STEM market, due to lower prices and broader appeal. However, over 2016-2021, parents are expected to have fewer children overall and have them later in life. This is likely to mean that they spend even more time getting involved with their child’s education, which in turn will see a rise in in the sale of speciality STEM toys.

New technologies could pose a threat to STEM toy sales, in particular speciality STEM

While STEM toys as a whole are expected to see growth over 2016-2021, smartphones and AR/VR headsets could be a source of competition. Smartphones are increasingly getting into the hands of children, and have the potential to see high growth in educational apps. In addition, AR/VR headsets could create a new interactive way to educate children. Speciality STEM, in particular, could be impacted by this, as these competing products are favoured by higher income households that are the core market for speciality STEM.