Traditional toy sales rise 17% ahead of Christmas
Sales of traditional toys such as building sets, action figures and stickers rose 17% in the first nine months of 2026, with lower-priced and sensory toys driving growth before Christmas.
How it was covered
- BBC One was the only channel found covering it, concentrating on sales growth, affordable and sensory toys, and counterfeit warnings.
- Channel 5, BBC News, BBC Two, Channel 4, GB News, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Peter Ruddock reported for BBC One West that around 23 toys are sold every second in the run-up to Christmas, making the period crucial for the toy industry.
The same report said sales of stickers, building sets and action figures were up 17% in the first nine months of 2026 compared with the same period last year. BBC One West reported that well over 250 million games, sets, puzzles, models and teddy bears had already been sold in the first nine months, about 38 million more than in the same period last year.
According to BBC One West, toys priced between £5 and £10 saw some of the biggest growth, which the report linked to squeezed incomes. It said the strongest increases were in traditional categories: building sets, action figures and stickers. Connected toys, AI-inspired models and sets that link to the internet still made up just 1% of all sales.
The report said parents were 'definitely looking to push children into physical toys', partly to keep them in the here and now rather than in virtual worlds. BBC One West also identified sensory toys, such as touchy-feely, slime and squishy products, as a big trend, saying they had been 'absolutely exploding off the shelves' this year.
Adults buying Lego and Pokémon cards, often driven by nostalgia, were continuing to boost sales, according to the report. BBC One West reported that the festive season follows a year of headlines about unsafe and counterfeit toys, including sand pits containing asbestos and squishy toys with cancer-causing chemicals, and that parents were increasingly warned to look out for fakes.
Despite cost-of-living pressures and those safety concerns, BBC One West said this was the best set of sales for the toy industry in a decade. Retailers would now hope that the rediscovery of play keeps that momentum going, the report added.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| Connected toys, AI-inspired models and internet-linked sets accounted for just 1% of all sales. | |
| More than 250 million games, sets, puzzles, models and teddy bears were sold in the first nine months, about 38 million more than a year earlier. | |
| Reported sales of stickers, building sets and action figures rose 17% year on year in the first nine months. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
BBC One West treated the story as a consumer and retail trend piece, leading with the scale of sales and explaining what is driving demand. It balanced the growth figures with cost-of-living pressure, screen-time concerns and warnings about counterfeit toys. The report used market data and unattributed analyst-style quotes, without named retailers or shoppers.
- “Sales of items like stickers, building sets and action figures were up 17% in the first nine months of the year compared with last year.”
- “One big trend that we've seen this year is sensory toys.”
- “Parents are definitely looking to push children into physical toys”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.