YouTube Drives Toy Sales for All Ages

New licenses signed by major toy companies over the past year illustrate how far the entertainment/character licensing space has transitioned away from its historical reliance on properties with television as a key component of their distribution platform. This is one of the most mainstream of mainstream categories, historically targeting a global market with mass-priced products that tend to take a longer time than many to design, manufacture, and ship. Even so, digital-first or digital-only entertainment brands, especially those rooted in YouTube, have been among the most frequent and highly anticipated licenses of late. Not only do these properties now often attract big numbers of total viewers, but they also have benefits in data collection, marketing, consumer loyalty, and product development. And, increasingly, they are viewed as having potential for longevity. 

As a result, many of the highest-profile toy launches of 2024 and 2025, across a variety of age groups, are coming from the digital realm: 

  • This year, Bonkers Toys, which has leaned in on YouTube properties since its founding, will release products for Toys and Colors Kaleidoscope City. The licensing deal was announced in October 2024. Toys and Colors Kaleidoscope City is a live-action and CG-animated series focused on empathy, tied to the Toys and Colors YouTube platform. It is available on eight Toys and Colors YouTube channels, which together have 109 million subscribers, as well as on the Ryan & Friends Channel on Pocket.watch, which represents the property for licensing, and on Roku. Toys and Colors is an educational brand producing YouTube videos, ebooks, sing-alongs, and coloring resources, among other content, for kids in preschool through second grade. 
  • Also in 2025, Moose Toys will release collectibles and playthings tied to The Amazing Digital Circus, a viral Australian YouTube property for adults, described as a psychological dark comedy about cute cartoon characters that are stuck in a world controlled by a crazy AI and want to leave. The series was licensed from Glitch Productions in a deal announced in July 2024. The first two episodes of YouTube content amassed more than 433 million views, leading the show to be greenlit for a full YouTube series in February 2024. Toys will include figures, plush, and other products. 
  • Spin Master and its Melissa & Doug preschool unit debuted the first products under their license with Ms. Rachel in August 2024; the deal with the YouTube educator was announced in late 2023. The early childhood learning and developmental line encompasses plush, dolls, soft playsets, blocks, puzzles, stroller toys, and loveys. The Ms. Rachel YouTube channel, which is focused on language development and other milestones and generates more than 400 million views and 50 million unique viewers per month, was created by and stars Rachel Griffin-Accurso and Aron Accurso, who are represented for licensing by CAA. 
  • Bonkers launched Skibidi Toilet surprise toys in fall of 2024. Products include a Mystery Surprise Toilet, which is a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box-style toilet that makes flushing sounds, with collectible stickers, figures, and other items inside; a Mystery Figure Collector Series featuring eight characters to start, including Skibidi Toilet, Plungerman, and TV Woman; and a line of Mystery Plush, consisting of four initial characters. The YouTube series consists of sci-fi battles between evil toilets and device-headed characters, accompanied by plenty of humor. According to an article this month in TubeFilter, Skibidi Toilet’s YouTube channel, DaFuq!?Boom!, currently attracts about 200 viewers a month, and the Mystery Toilet was a bestseller for Bonkers, Amazon, and Walmart during the 2024 holiday season. The series, licensed by Invisible Narratives, has generated more than 65 million views since its debut. 
  • Moose introduced its MrBeast Lab action figure, vinyl figure, and collectible line, created with YouTube star MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), to retailers in the U.S. in June 2024 and to international retailers last fall. MrBeast promotes the toy line on YouTube, where he is the most-subscribed content creator with 289 million-plus subscribers, 2 billion monthly views, and 52 billion lifetime views. Product highlights include MrBeast Lab Swarms, which feature more than 100 microcollectibles revealed by being shaken in a water-filled test tube; MrBeast Lab Mutators, with an experiment-based unboxing experience; and MrBeast Lab premium vinyl figures inspired by the Mr. Beast logo, a fierce blue panther. 

There is still room in the industry for properties that count TV as the leading or a key franchise component, of course, from more recent IPs such as Bluey, which renewed its successful toy license with Moose in May 2024, to classics like Sesame Street, which signed a new master toy deal with Just Play in 2022 and recently launched new toy lines with Kids Preferred for infants and NECA for adults. 

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