A list of the top 10 best-selling toys at the time Britons prepared to go into lockdown has been published.
Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Uno feature prominently, as consumers turn to the classics in a time of crisis.
The biggest selling toy category in the first official week of lockdown was Games & Puzzles, winning a 21% share of weekly spend across the entire toy sector, up from 9% in the same week in 2019 and showing a huge growth in value of 240%. Outdoor & Sports took 18% of all sector spend, up from 12% last year. Best-sellers included playhouses, slides and Swingball, as parents prepared for anticipated good weather. Also to keep the kids occupied, sales in the Arts & Crafts category almost doubled (up 97%) with slime, dough and craft kits all making it into shopping baskets. Finally sales of Building Sets rose 59% year-on-year.
Frederique Tutt, global toy market expert for The NPD Group, said: “Our figures clearly show that consumers are preparing for the coming weeks of isolation with a selection of family board games, outdoor and seasonal summer toys, craft kits and building sets. It’s interesting to see the classic games of Monopoly, Scrabble, Cluedo and Uno on this list. These ‘standards’ have shown us over and again that they can stand the test of time when reinvented, and it looks like they’ll continue entertaining generations of Britons as householders look to release stress and tighten family ties during these challenging times.
She continued: “We’ve seen this trend to buy board games during the lockdown period in France too, but where Brits buck the trend is in the sale of some of the toughest building sets available. With their price points at around £233 for the Technic Bugatti Chiron Construction Kit and approximately £153 for the Technic Land Rover Defender kit, these sets clearly aren’t just for the kids. We’re seeing a clear ‘kidult’ and adult trend. Perhaps some of the buyers are grabbing the opportunity to use their newly found spare time to achieve a long-term dream to build one of these cars in Lego.”
For more on how games & puzzles are helping Brits during the coronavirus lockdown, check out our comprehensive feature from the April issue of Toy World magazine.
