The toy merchants offer more and more products to “kidults”, a term born from the contraction of “kids” and “adults”. Games for adults, which emphasize nostalgia or evenings with friends.
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Adults rediscovered the game during confinement and they took a liking to it. Sales for adults are soaring. An increase of 33% in 2020, for these games that target “kidults”. The market weighs heavily: nearly 20% of turnover in the toy industry.
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There is for example this replica of the USS Enterprise, the famous spaceship of Star Trek. A very nice Playmobil toy but for adults: “The brand officially launches into this category, explains Olivier Donval, director of collections at JouéClub. You have a product that must be 80 cm long, 40 cm high. You have the whole crew and it’s bright and sound. It is a product that will be sold around 400 euros. These are fan products, at the end of the day. “
Distributors come to publish additional and specialized Christmas catalogs. The atmosphere is nostalgic with figures from the 1980s and 1990s by Grendizer Where Dragon ball, puzzles like the one in Hogwarts Castle in Harry potter with more than 500 3D pieces, or strategy games that are real puzzles.
Manufacturers are also starting to imagine more “naughty” atmospheres as for the game of The Inferno Bottle. “It’s about making challenges, sometimes with slightly transgressive questions, explains Corinne Grenay, Marketing Director at Lansay. For example: ‘Make up three insults and explain what they mean’ or ‘Swap clothes with the player on the left’. So there is no taboo, we can talk about anything. The idea is that we dare and let go. “
The games are placed high in the shelves and clearly visible in black, purple or burgundy. “These are a bit of evening games, explains Romain Chemière, editor of Beat That. It is a medium of ‘disconnade’ and delirium between young people and adults. It is a type of clientele that is very different, who will have a more impulse purchase, for example on Valentine’s Day. This makes the seasonality of board games very different throughout the year. ”
This new target does not hesitate to spend more. This is vital for the industry because children are now giving up toys for electronic hobbies long before they are 10 years old.
The “kidults”, a new target for toy dealers: report by Sophie Auvigne
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