This Holiday, Adults Are the Ones Toying Around

If there was one gift she had to buy this Christmas, it was the toy space station. It included three pilot action figures, two detachable rovers, and two wing-mounted cruisers for space exploration. But it wasn’t her young son who wanted it. It was her husband.  

It’s no surprise that adults are the biggest buyers of toys—what’s surprising is instead of getting them for their kids, they’re buying for themselves. Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new report shows that adults over 18 years old are spending more on toys for themselves than they are for their kids. So-called “kidults” now account for 28% of global toy sales, spending $1.5 billion on new and classic toys. While toy sales overall have been either down or flat since 2022, sales to this demographic have grown 2.5%. “Adults aren’t dabbling in toys and board games, they’re driving the category,” says Chris Von Der Ahe, a senior client partner in the consumer markets practice at Korn Ferry.

It's the latest example—of many—of how corporate leaders have needed to shift gears rapidly to conform to customer tastes. Just recently, Cheetos and Doritos came out with a “naked” version of their snacks, to adjust to a backlash against food coloring. In the case of toys, nostalgia, of course, has become the driving force and a powerful marketing tactic for driving revenue, says Peri Hansen, leader of the Marketing Officers practice in North America for Korn Ferry. This has proven true in many industries and categories, from the boom in vintage or retro clothing fashions to new “throw-back” menu items at restaurants.

According to a recent study, marketing campaigns featuring nostalgic or “retro” elements can increase sales by 20% or more. Indeed, nostalgia is one of the biggest drivers of the massive growth in the collectibles market for toys, which is forecast to be worth more than $35 billion by 2032. “Boomers and GenXers are major forces when it comes to collecting,” says Hansen, who notes that online platforms and social media have accelerated and fueled access to collectibles.  

But it isn’t just nostalgia driving adults back to toys, says Matthew Siegel, a principal in the technology and marketing officers practices at Korn Ferry. He points to parents spending more time at home with their kids, the explosion in board game meetups in cities across the US, and even “LAN parties,” where people gather physically to play online games even through broadband capacity negates the need for them to be together, as examples of how adults are socializing more with toys and games. “Adults are using toys in a social context to get together in-person in order to combat isolation and a deterioration of other forms of community," says Siegel.

The socialization angle, the anxiety people are feeling about AI taking away their livelihoods, and the desire to live less digitally, is something marketers have noticed, says Von Der Ahe. He says the general malaise and uncertainty that has permeated the culture in the last few years is prompting people to look for comfort and long for a simpler time. “People want more human connection, and brands that understand that can capture a whole new revenue stream,” Von Der Ahe says. 

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