Every year The Toy Zone comes out with an annual report of the most popular toys around the world, and this past year was no different. The website looks at Google search data to find the most popular toys across 161 countries, and, the 2023 results were heartwarming!
Toys go back to the beginning of time and are common to every culture, regardless of our differences. Starting out as wood, metal or clay objects, toys have now evolved to become highly intricate technologies that still carry the original intentions to help teach, foster connection or act as a creative outlet. New versions of old toys, or even exact replicas, are still popular today, but you may be surprised which ones are still in the top ten most popular toys worldwide.
The Toy Zone summarised their key findings as follows:
- "Ludo is the most popular classic toy in the world, the favourite in 20 countries.
- Barbie dolls and Yoyos are tied for second most popular, topping 16 countries.
- When it comes to the U.S., Catwoman Toys are the most popular superhero toys.
- Stickle Bricks are the most popular building blocks in the UK.
- Sailor Moon Toys are the most popular TV toys in Canada.”
And the exact top ten toys are:
1- Ludo
2- Barbie + Yoyo
4- Bratz
5- L.O.L. Surprise
6- Frisbee
7- Rubik’s Cube
8- Xbox Series S
9- Play-Doh
10- Duplo
We find some of these findings so fascinating. First of all, the top toy in the world is a board game. Let’s repeat that. The top toy in the world is a board game. In the twenty-first century, which is saturated with video games, movies and social media influences, the top toy in the world was a family board game! It wasn’t just Ludo that was the favourite, either, in countless countries the top toy was Monopoly, Scrabble, Pictionary or some other version of a board game. We couldn’t be more thrilled with this result because how nice is it to think that the majority of the world was connecting one-on-one with friends and family last year? Everyone spent time together, bonding over games and making memories. We hope everyone is going into 2024 with the same intentions, and if you want to join in on the fun, check out some of our games and puzzles and keep 2024 away from excessive screen-time.
Speaking of screen-time, however, it is intriguing to see the impact media has on the world, especially the youngest generations. Luckily for us, from the data shown, it appears to be having some positive impacts. Catwoman toys being the most popular of superhero toys in the US feels like a very promising statistic, and shows the receptiveness of children (and anyone!) being able to access diverse media. When you were a child, how many of the most popular superheroes were women? We have a feeling it wasn’t a lot, because there weren't many. At least, not too many tailored to be role models for young children. Now, there is an increasing number of female leads and an increase in representation in multiple areas, which is a great outcome we hope only grows over the next few years.
Another incredible example of representation and the impact it has on our globe is the Barbie stats. Not that Barbie is one of the top toys globally (I think we all saw that coming), but which Barbie doll actually was the most popular. While there were several top well-known Barbies, the most popular doll globally was the Barbie Fashionistas Doll With Down Syndrome. Mattel released the toy in 2023, and worked with the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) to produce it. The Toy Zone reported how Kandi Pickard, the NDSS president, stated how “We should never underestimate the power of representation”, and we think that its popularity is truly a testament to that power and the impact being inclusive can have on all people.
One final point we wanted to explore was the popularity of old(er) toys. There was an overwhelming popularity in ‘Classic’ toys, such as the yoyo and frisbee, which were both in the top ten toys worldwide. The frisbee dates back to the late 19th century, whereas variations of the yo-yo go back to before 1000 B.C.. ‘90s Toys also proved to have a substantial resurgence, being one of the most popular categories The Toy Zone used to sort out the top toys. Some of the most popular of these, which took the top spot of most popular toy in different countries, were Sky Dancers, Super Nintendo Entertainment Systems (also known as SNES) and Hot Wheels (who, by the way, came to our store earlier this month so all of our hotwheel enthusiasts could meet real life stunt drivers, get free Hot Wheels cars and have an overall fun time!). It’s so cool to see the endurance in these toys and the communities they foster, even with new electronic games being produced every few months, and we can’t wait to see the impact they keep having on others.
We highly recommend reading the whole article by The Toy Zone, linked here, but we appreciate you taking the time to read our highlights of it. We are so excited to see how toys and inclusivity are developing over time, and can’t wait to see what the next few years have in store for it. Hopefully the statistics will continue to bring in promising results!
If you want to shop the top three toys in the world, click here for Ludo, here for Barbie, and here for the yoyo, and ensure you subscribe to our monthly news for more opportunities like meeting real life stunt drivers!