Plush Toy Market Trends in 2024: A Rapidly Growing Industry

Market data confirms growth in the plush toy category

Recently, the Mother and Baby Industry Observations worked with the Mother and Baby Research Institute to release the 2024 Plush Toy Brand TOP 10 Power List. The institute focuses on market research in the mother and baby sector. This list evaluates each brand’s commercial value using five key criteria: brand power, product power, channel power, organizational power, and purchasing power. By assigning different weights to each dimension, a comprehensive score is calculated to determine the rankings. Here is the specific list:

With the continuous explosion of the emotional economy, the plush toy market has ushered in a new round of growth. According to Magic Mirror Insights, which analyzed data from Tmall and Taobao, the plush toy market reached 4.24 billion yuan in 2024. This marked an 8.4% increase compared to the previous year. These numbers reflect major Plush Toy Market Trends in consumer behavior, where emotional resonance drives sales.

Business registration data supports market momentum

At the same time, data from Qichacha shows there are 17,700 plush toy-related companies currently operating in China. As of December 5, 2024, 1,392 new companies had been registered. Among them, 1,376 were registered in the first 11 months. This represents a 15.05% increase compared to the same period last year.

With many players gathering in the plush toy market, which brands have become the new traffic magnets? What lessons can their development paths teach newcomers?

Related Resources here: Growth in the Toy Industry in China – Key 2024 Insights

JELLYCAT Plush Toys: The Emotional Favorite of Young Consumers

Why JELLYCAT ranked first in the Top Plush Toys 2024 list

Ranked TOP1 on the list is the British plush toy brand JELLYCAT Plush Toys. JELLYCAT is known for its soft touch and anthropomorphic IP design. It also uses precise scarcity marketing. These features have won the hearts of young consumers in the Chinese market. The brand regularly releases new products—more than 200 each year. These include animals, plants, food items, and daily necessities. This wide variety meets the preferences of different audience groups.

Social sharing and emotional branding

Seeding is often a challenge for most brands. However, many consumers voluntarily take JELLYCAT IP plush dolls to tourist attractions. Popular characters include the Barcelona bear, penguin, Bonnie bunny, lively eggplant, eyemask owl, and rainbow cake. These dolls have human-like features, which inspire users to create expressive content. On social media, this content triggers emotional responses and leads to spontaneous sharing. As a result, the brand spreads quickly across different user communities.

For JELLYCAT Plush Toys, success comes from more than just great products. The brand also builds emotional value through strong IP design. This makes the toys both a “healing tool” for young consumers and a kind of “social currency” in their daily lives.

Strong financial performance reflects consumer preference

Based on the advantages mentioned above, JELLYCAT’s performance is envied by its peers. In 2023, JELLYCAT’s revenue reached 200 million pounds, or about 1.85 billion yuan. This marked a 37% increase compared to the previous year. Its gross profit was 130 million pounds, or roughly 1.2 billion yuan. That figure showed a year-over-year growth of 46%.

However, JELLYCAT’s popularity is not accidental. If you spend time on social platforms, you’ll likely see plush toys like Disney’s Lena Belle and Star D’Luna. Another popular figure is IKEA’s sad but cute Broccoli Shark. These toys don’t come from deep or complex IPs, but they are still very popular among young people. Their soft texture helps users reduce stress and anxiety. For many, they offer an emotional outlet that feels comforting and personal.

Related Resources here: Pop Mart Global Expansion Targets Toy Markets Worldwide

Exploring Top Plush Toy Brands 2024: Innovation Meets Culture

Pop Mart: Fast growth through original IP

As the plush toy market continues to grow, many toy brands and retailers are seizing new opportunities. Pop Mart is a great example. It has gained attention by successfully entering the plush toy space. In the first half of 2024, its plush toy revenue rose by 993.6%, reaching 446 million yuan. Pop Mart started its plush journey with a silicone plush toy called Labubu. Users described it as “smiling genuinely,” “healing,” and “getting cuter the more you look at it.”

Labubu is a character from designer Jason Freeny’s series, THE MONSTERS. It looks a bit mischievous but is also lively, brave, cute, and optimistic—a true forest creature. The success of Labubu’s silicone plush helped Pop Mart break into both the plush toy market and Southeast Asia. It also boosted the brand’s overall value. On resale platforms, a box of the Labubu Party silicone plush series, originally priced at 594 yuan, has sold for thousands.

Miniso: Global IP collaboration at scale

Unlike Pop Mart, which focuses on its own IP, Miniso excels at turning popular IPs into plush toys. In the first three quarters of 2024, Miniso sold 36 million plush units worldwide—a remarkable number. The company introduces over 10,000 new IP-based products each year. It also partners with more than 150 well-known global IPs. These include Pokémon, Harry Potter, Sanrio, My Little Pony, Disney, Barbie, and Chiikawa.

Miniso has announced a new collaboration with Disney. This year, they will launch a mini series of silicone plush products together. The brand continues to update its plush product line regularly. Meanwhile, both Pop Mart and Miniso are expanding their international business. As they grow abroad, the categories they compete in are also becoming more diverse.

Wentongzi: Tradition Meets Modern Design

After the plush toy boom, whether to follow the path of JELLYCAT Plush Toys or find one’s way has become a collective contemplation for practitioners. Let’s first look at Wentongzi, which initially focused on the car accessory market with its first pot of gold coming from the “One Deer Peace” bamboo charcoal doll.

During its development, Wentongzi found that combining traditional Chinese culture with trendy design was effective. This approach helped the brand highlight Chinese cultural identity and improve recognition. One example is Wentongzi’s “Art Buddy · The Fisher,” a cormorant inspired by the image of a lone fisherman in a straw raincoat, fishing in snowy rivers. The “Little Demon” series includes Buboy the Buffer, Black Bear Spirit, and Turtle Prime Minister. These characters are creative reinterpretations of figures from Journey to the West. Other products, like Fox Faux-Tiger Power, Dumb as a Wooden Chicken, and Fool Bug Ornament, draw inspiration from traditional Chinese idioms.

Wentongzi’s Seasonal Innovation and Customization

Furthermore, designing plush toys for the New Year is a hotly contested area for sellers. Last year, the company launched the blockbuster “Dragon Head Boss,” and this year, it introduced the Chinese local snake series, like “The Strong Dragon Doesn’t Bully the Local Snake,” priced at 329 yuan. Besides, to meet a more diverse range of audience needs, Wentongzi also offers services for changing the clothes of dolls, continuously exploring more possibilities in the plush toy business.

Chongker: Realistic Plush Pets for a New Generation

Chongker Simulated Pets focuses on making lifelike pet and animal toys. Their products feature semi-realism, custom realism, intelligent simulation, and other realistic details. Simply put, Chongker offers pet-like plush toys for people who love animals but cannot own one. Their lineup includes realistic dogs such as Huskies and Border Collies. They also produce lifelike cats, including Golden Layers, Calico, and Cow Cats.

In addition to plush pet dolls, Chongker has also launched plush accessories, realistic pet backpacks, intelligent AI pets, and other categories. In the seemingly blue ocean of the plush toy market, most enterprises leverage the market’s popular IPs to give their brands more volume and recognition, but the newcomer Chongker directly engages in the business of realistic pet “alternatives” for young people, strongly emerging as a dark horse in the scene.

Related Resources here: The Rise of Mini Brands Toys as Kids’ Latest Obsession

Summary

Overall, the plush toy market shows new consumption trends such as IP-ization, realism, and AI-intelligent. Focusing on the domestic market, although more and more brands are rushing into the plush race, the market is still in a “category-rich but brand-poor” state, with no company running to the front like plush toy JELLYCAT or brick toy LEGO. However, under the backdrop of the emotional and healing economy, a batch of distinctive and promising newcomers has emerged, marking a good beginning for what many analysts are calling the Top Plush Toys 2024.

Disclaimer: The following article is from “Toy Frontiers.” Author: “Toy Growth Secrets.”