The 2016 UEFA European Football championship is set to be the biggest toy seller of the summer, the NPD Group says. Euro 2016 will see a lot of new toys.
There has already been several indications this will be the case. Panini’s UEFA Euro 2016 sticker packs were the top selling toy in the UK in April. The toy industry analyst group NPD is saying there is much more to come.
“The last significant football event – the 2014 World Cup – had a huge impact on the toy industry with more than 24 million football related toys sold – that’s almost 10 per cent of all toy sales in the UK that year” said Frédérique Tutt, toys global industry analyst at The NPD Group, ToyNews reports.
“Our data shows how popular the European Championship is, with football related toy sales representing £6.7m to May 7th, compared to £6.1m in total for the 2014 World Cup with both figures include sales of Premier League related toys. With the opening kick-off more than three weeks away, the first signs of what could be the biggest toy craze of the summer in the UK are already perceptible. Almost one in five of all toys sold in the UK in the last week of April was football related”, Tutt added.
The situation is similar in other European countries. In France, UEFA Euro stickers have topped the toys sales league since the last week of April. In Belgium the top two best-selling toys in April were both packs of Panini cards.
“As always, the UK has taken an early lead and started to support the collectible trend before their European counterparts,” added Tutt. “Now we wait to see what happens when the real competition starts on the pitch.”
We are expecting that sales of stuffed animals and plush toys with a football (soccer for the US) theme will also show a healthy rise in sales. The official mascot for Euro 2016 is a boy named Super Victor. The name Super Victor is based on the idea of victory and references the boy’s super powers that he gained when he found the magic cape, boots and ball.
We are also hoping that the official mascot for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, Footix, will also make a nostalgic appearance. Can you guess why?
