The Top 7 Toy Companies Ranked by Market Share

I ran across some interesting data in a Wall Street Journal article, "Toy Sorry: Why the Holiday Season May Give Hasbro, Mattel a Lump of Coal". The author, Elizabeth Winkler, as the title implies, predicts a tough year ending for Mattel and Hasbro.

What caught my eye, however, was the breakout prepared by UBS. It detailed the market share for the seven largest U.S. toy companies:

            Mattel           19%

            Hasbro         15%

            Lego              9%

            Spinmaster    4%

           JAKKS           3%

           MGA              3%

           VTech            2%

Its interesting, if not surprising, data. But if you work with the numbers you begin to see some interesting statistics:

• The seven companies listed account for 55% of toy sales.
• Accordingly, smaller retailers, those not listed, account for 45%. 
• Mattel and Hasbro, between them, control 34% of the market.
• Mid-sized companies account for 21%.

With the current spate of mergers taking place in the industry, it will be interesting to see if that last number grows over the next few years.