Kids Insights specializes in research and insights on kids and their ecosystems. We survey 2,000+ kids, tweens, and teens every single week across three continents, including US, UK, Europe, and India. Our real-time portal is continually updated to allow our clients to spot the latest trends before their competitors. Our insight-led reports are produced by some of the top kids’ researchers and have seen us short-listed for several start-ups and innovation awards.
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Kids Insights recently issued their latest Leisure Measure report that focuses on the offline lives of kids, from how they spend their time, to what they enjoy doing, and what they are currently consuming. The research is based on the results of surveying 5,000 American children between April and June 2019, though it also utilizes data collected since June 2018.
The latest research shows how girls tend to have a more diverse leisure time than boys, being more likely to do almost all activities over a week, including watching TV, listening to music, chores, reading, being online, arts & crafts, studying, and shopping.
The only activities that boys are more likely than girls to participate in over the course of a week is playing with video games and toys as well as ‘being active’ outdoors. When we interrogate the data to review specific categories, we find that overall kids ages 12 and under spend 1 hour per day playing with toys and games.
Each month, they spend about $7.50 on their own toys. This equates to over $3.67bn spent on toys each year by the children themselves.
We also see how the different media kids consume has an impact on the toys they seek out to purchase and play with. Across all media types, however, toys are the most popular form of licensed merchandise for kids under-12.
TV shows have the greatest impact in terms of toys bought as a result of a child watching the show. Half of all kids (3-12 years old) said they had bought a toy-related to their favorite TV show, and of these kids, SpongeBob SquarePants, Paw Patrol, and PJ Masks were their top picks.
For movies, 42% of kids reported buying toys that tied into their favorite film. A fifth of these children said they were looking forward to seeing Toy Story 4 in cinemas.
Graph.1 Favorite Toy Type (3-12s), Q2 2019 US
Video game tie-ins were the next most likely type of media-based toys for kids.
Our findings demonstrate that the popularity of gaming is as strong as ever in Q2, and it is now the number one hobby within kids aged 3-12. Remarkably, 21.3% of kids said they had purchased gaming-related toys. Minecraft, Mario Kart, and Fortnite were the most-liked games of kids with this purchase history.
It is clear the world is changing faster than ever before. This generation of children has far greater control and choice of what content they consume and how they consume it. If you are looking at which properties are performing well before investing in them, why not give us a call to see how we can help by providing you with access to the most comprehensive and dynamic independent market intelligence on kids.
To download a complimentary Kids Insights report, please visit www.kidsinsights.com/globaltoyexperts
