Toy & Game Manufacturing Industry Profile

The US toy manufacturing industry includes about 700 companies and has annual revenue of $20 billion. Almost all manufacturing is conducted in overseas factories, primarily in China. Major companies include Mattel, Hasbro, and MGA Entertainment, as well as gaming hardware division of Microsoft. The industry is highly concentrated: the top 50 companies generate about 75 percent of revenue.

Global toy industry revenues total about $85 billion, according to the NPD Group. Top companies outside the US include Namco Bandai, (Japan) and Shenzhen Jinfeng Huangrongsha Metal Arts & Crafts (China), as well as gaming hardware divisions of Nintendo and Sony. Brands that dominate their sectors out of proportion to company size include LEGO (Denmark, building toys), Steiff (Germany, stuffed animals), Sanrio (Japan, Hello Kitty), and Pokemon (Japan, trading cards and video games).

The industry includes manufacturers of video game consoles, which are covered in the Electronic Gaming Products industry profile, but does not include companies that produce software for video or computer games, which are covered in the Entertainment and Games Software industry profile.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Growth in the population of children age 12 and younger drives demand for toys; demand for electronic gaming products is driven by personal income and product innovation. The profitability of individual companies depends on identifying market trends and marketing effectively. Large companies can offer a wide selection of toys, and have scale advantages in purchasing, manufacturing, distributing, ...