Thursday, March 12, 2026
Les Tops Noël 2025
+7 points: this is the growth rate of the toy and games market in 2025 vs. 2024, according to the distributor panel tracking sales across the sector. But +7 points is also the increase in the number of children aged 4–14 who asked for construction toys on their Christmas wish lists, with the highest growth rates among girls aged 9–10 and 13–14, and across all boys aged 9–14.
The mid-November review of Christmas wish lists also showed a much stronger demand than the previous year for card games (collectible or not), plush toys (where Stitch & Labubu clearly stood out), and video games, with the Mario franchise far ahead at the top.
These indicators strongly predicted what would likely become the biggest end-of-year successes among children. They should also be considered alongside the key categories requested by two-thirds of Kidults for Christmas and/or purchased by around 80% of them for their own enjoyment. Not to mention audio story boxes, which do not appear on wish lists because they are aimed at younger children and are bought directly by parents for those under 6, or by grandparents for older kids.
These are the categories that appear as the five main market-driving segments in 2025 according to analyses conducted by industry experts.
Beyond this growth—welcomed by everyone despite declining demographics and worrying socio-economic and geopolitical prospects - these results raise an interesting reflection, or rather a key question: what is the common denominator behind all these current successes?
When we take the time to analyze this with the end consumer, it becomes clear that for all these product categories, performance is not solely the result of marketing activations around iconic brands or trend phenomena. A large part of their success is also linked to the practical value of these games and toys - products that are played with for a long time and very frequently. They are not just gifts eagerly desired during the catalogue season that, once unwrapped, are enjoyed for a few weeks before quickly being used only occasionally.
Collecting strategic cards and refining one’s decks (especially if you actually play with them) takes a great deal of time. Similarly, building models, flower bouquets, combat ships, vehicles, or environments with bricks requires hours of patience, and once completed, the creations are proudly displayed—often inspiring the desire to build more. Card games are quick to play, which encourages repeated rounds and makes them more frequently played than many other types of games. Storytelling devices have become part of the nightly bedtime ritual and are used daily. The same goes for the affection shared with fashionable plush toys or the attention devoted to virtual companions.
In other words, “you get your money’s worth.” The total amount of playtime thus becomes a rational criterion for parents when evaluating and choosing toys - especially since they sometimes feel toys are too numerous and bulky compared with how much they are actually used. This reflection goes hand in hand with the search for more opportunities to play, alongside the creation of new products and the efforts spent trying to reach audiences within schedules already saturated with screen time. Could market growth also come from giving more space and time to play itself, rather than just to the object?
Outside of Kidults, the equation is simple: to sell more games and toys while there are fewer children, there is only one solution - create more time and opportunities to play.
Sources: FamilyBus barometer – November 2025 wave - 750 children aged 4–14 surveyed online with their parents between November 19 and 26, 2025; Kidult profiling study - fieldwork conducted in November 2024 and January 2025; 50+ profiling study / grandparent–grandchild relationships - 1,329 grandparents surveyed in October 2025.
Article written by Junior City.