Following several years of double-digit current value growth due to the pandemic and subsequent home seclusion, toys and games recorded a notable slowdown in 2022, with traditional toys and games experiencing a decline. Nevertheless, as many consumers continued to spend time at home, despite an easing of restrictions during the year, value sales of traditional toys and games remained higher than pre-pandemic levels, with parents eager to ensure that their children spent time away from digital devices used for both learning and entertainment purposes, through arts and crafts, games and puzzles, and outdoor and sports.
Players are having to identify different strategies to address a post-pandemic environment where greater mobility outside of the home can potentially take share of expenditure away from toys and games in the coming years as consumers search for new experiences. For producers of traditional toys and games, targeting an older audience of “kidults” remained relevant in 2022, with players and retailers adding adults to their target consumer group due to the falling birth rate, and thus the falling population of the traditional audience for such products.
Due to the much higher value of video games in South Korea compared to traditional toys and games, the overall local industry continued to be led by players in this category. In fact, the leading player in traditional toys and games, LEGO Korea, only ranked eighth in overall toys and games in 2022, and in line with a drop in demand for construction, also experienced a decline in value sales although they remained higher than pre-pandemic levels.
Retail offline in South Korea continued to lose ground to e-commerce across toys and games in 2022, including hypermarkets and traditional toys and games stores, which are popular destinations for consumers purchasing traditional toys and games as they like to first test and handle the toys prior to making a purchasing decision. Nevertheless, e-commerce became the leading distribution channel for this category during the pandemic, offering the convenience and relative safety of home delivery, competitive prices and a wider range of products.
Toys and games is predicted to record a positive performance over the forecast period, although rising maturity and expenditure outside of the home will ensure a gradual slowing of value sales growth in the coming years. While the low and declining birth rate in South Korea will reduce the target audience of traditional toys and games, parents are more likely to be willing to invest in higher quality items for their children, while demand for subscription services, premium products, and educational smart toys carefully designed for each stage of growth of children will also increase.
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Toys and Games
This is the aggregation of traditional toys and games and video games.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Toys and Games research and analysis database.
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