Kidult Spending Trends in 2026: Who's Buying LEGO, Pokémon, and Building Toys as an Adult

Key Takeaways

• All three Core Adult age segments (25 to 34, 35 to 44, and 45 to 54) returned to positive YoY spending growth simultaneously by April 2026.
• Building & Construction Toys gained 2.8 ppt of category share among Core Adults, with 25 to 34 year olds growing fastest at +18% YoY.
• Pokémon anchors the majority of younger adult card game spend, with 25 to 34 year olds leading at $45 in annual spend and 2.87 units per shopper.
• Child-free households trail households with children by only ~$30 in toy spend per shopper, confirming kidult demand exists independently of family-driven buying.

The Kidult Consumer Is No Longer a Niche. It's a Market Force

The U.S. toy industry grew 13% through the first four months of 2026, and adults are a central reason why. Our data shows that consumers aged 18 and older now represent a growing share of total toy industry spending, a trend that has steadily expanded over the past three years.

But behind that headline number is a more specific story. YipitData's analysis of e-receipt and credit card transaction data from May 2025 through April 2026 reveals exactly which adult shoppers are driving this shift, what they're buying, where they're buying it, and how much they're spending.

The findings point to a mature, income-diverse, and category-specific adult consumer base, one that toy brands and retailers can no longer treat as an afterthought.

Who Is the "Core Adult" Toy Shopper?

YipitData defines the Core Adult shopper as toy and game buyers aged 25 to 54. Within this demographic, spending patterns tell a clear story of recovery and acceleration:

• 25 to 34 year olds recovered to +9% year-over-year growth by April 2026 on a trailing-twelve-month (T12M) basis, after a period of decline.
• 35 to 44 year olds rebounded from low single-digit decline to positive territory over the same period.
• 45 to 54 year olds remained in positive growth throughout, providing steady category demand.

What makes this notable is that all three segments improved simultaneously, suggesting the adult toy shopper opportunity is broadening, not narrowing.

Household Income Profile

Toy and game spend is concentrated among mid-to-high household income (HHI) shoppers. The data shows that households earning $100K to $200K+ represent a disproportionate share of total toy and game GMV (gross merchandise value), reinforcing that adult toy spending correlates with disposable income.

What Are Adult Toy Shoppers Buying?

Two categories stand out for their outsized share gains among Core Adult shoppers over the past two years:

Building & Construction Toys (LEGO and Beyond)

Building & Construction Toys gained approximately 2.8 percentage points (ppt) of category share on a T12M basis among Core Adult shoppers. This is one of the largest category-level share shifts in the data.

The 35 to 44 age group commands the largest share of building toy spend at roughly ~30%, followed by the 45 to 54 cohort at ~20%, with 25 to 34 year olds holding the smallest share. But growth tells a different story: the 25 to 34 segment is expanding fastest at +18% YoY, followed by 45 to 54 year olds at +16%, while the 35 to 44 group grew at a low double-digit pace.

On purchase behavior, the 35 to 44 cohort leads on both scale and frequency, averaging 2.39 orders per shopper and $70 in annual spend. The 25 to 34 segment averages 1.97 orders and $55 in spend, while the 45 to 54 cohort lands at 2.07 orders and $65 in spend. Notably, the 45 to 54 group shows the highest spend per trip at $31, suggesting fewer but higher-value purchases. This is consistent with premium set buying behavior often associated with adult LEGO fans.

The Affluent 35 to 44 Building Toy Shopper

Affluent adults aged 35 to 44 with household incomes of $150K+ over-index significantly in the Building & Construction category. These shoppers are increasingly consolidating purchases into Mass Retail channels, which gained approximately 3.5 ppt of share since May 2024 on a T12M basis. Specialty retailers also saw smaller gains, while eCommerce channels softened moderately (down 1.7 ppt).

Among the top LEGO SKUs purchased by this affluent adult demographic in the past twelve months:

1. LEGO Speed Champions Ferrari 499P Hypercar (30709)
2. LEGO Star Wars Millennium Falcon Mini-Build (30708)
3. LEGO Santa's Delivery Truck (40746)
4. LEGO Sunflowers Building Toy Set (40524)
5. LEGO Minecraft The Nether Lava Battle Playset (21266)

The mix of licensed IP (Star Wars, Ferrari, Minecraft), seasonal products, and display-oriented sets reflects the fandom, nostalgia, and collector motivations that define adult building toy demand.

Card Games: Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, and Trading Card Trends

Card Games have experienced a share trajectory similar to Building Toys among Core Adult shoppers, gaining meaningful share over the past two years. Within Card Games, the demographic picture shifts younger. The 35 to 44 group holds the majority of card game spend, but the 25 to 34 cohort, at roughly ~25% share, is growing at a mid-double-digit YoY pace. The 45 to 54 segment holds the smallest share with the least momentum.

The 25 to 34 cohort is the clear engagement leader in Card Games. These younger shoppers average $45 in spend per shopper and 2.87 units per shopper, leading both metrics across all three age groups. The 35 to 44 group follows at $38 and 2.65 units, while the 45 to 54 segment trails at $30 and 2.34 units. On order frequency, the two younger cohorts are nearly identical (1.78 vs. 1.79 orders per shopper), while the 45 to 54 group lags at 1.63. This makes the 25 to 34 segment the primary engagement engine in this category.

Income Reach and Brand Concentration

The 25 to 34 Card Game shopper over-indexes in both the $150 to $200K and under $75K household income brackets, suggesting a broader income footprint than older cohorts. This positions the younger adult Card Game segment as both high-engagement and income-diverse.

On brand concentration: Pokémon anchors the majority of younger adult card game spend. Magic: The Gathering captured approximately 10% of the 25 to 34 segment's spend, with other brands taking smaller shares. This signals that younger adult card game demand is concentrated primarily in Pokémon and a few key hobby and trading card brands.

Channel Shifts in Card Games

Among 25 to 34 Card Game shoppers, Value & Convenience channels gained approximately 4.5 ppt since May 2024 on a T12M basis, while eCommerce ceded nearly equivalent share. Mass Retail remained stable, and Specialty Retailers softened. This suggests younger adult card game buyers are increasingly purchasing through accessible, everyday retail formats rather than specialty or online-only channels.

Child-Free Households: Validating the Kidult Trend

One of the most telling signals in the data involves child-free households. YipitData's analysis shows that child-free toy and game shoppers trail households with children by only ~$30 in spend per shopper and ~1 unit per shopper over the past twelve months.

Among child-free households, the category spend profile closely mirrors the broader Core Adult footprint:

• Building & Construction Toys gained ~2.2 ppt of share, close to the 2.8 ppt gain seen across all Core Adult shoppers.
• The overlap in category mix between child-free and all Core Adult shoppers suggests that kidult demand is consolidating into the same fandom, collector, and hobby-forward categories regardless of household composition.

This matters because it isolates adult self-purchase and gifting-to-adults behavior from family-driven toy buying, confirming that adult toy demand exists independently of children in the household.

What This Means for the Toys Industry

The data paints a consistent picture: the adult toy consumer is not a novelty segment. It is a structured, multi-cohort market with identifiable spending patterns, category preferences, and channel behaviors.

For toy brands, the implications are:

• Building toy brands should prioritize the 35 to 44 affluent shopper for scale and retention, while investing in 25 to 34 recruitment strategies to capture the fastest-growing segment.
• Card game brands, particularly Pokémon, should recognize that their most engaged buyer base skews younger, more income-diverse, and increasingly channel-flexible.
• Collector and hobby-forward product development aligns directly with where adult share gains are concentrating.

For retailers, the shift toward Mass Retail among affluent building toy shoppers and toward Value & Convenience among younger card game shoppers signals that physical retail assortment and shelf strategy matter for capturing adult demand.

For the industry at large, the simultaneous recovery across all three Core Adult age segments, combined with resilient child-free household spending, suggests that the kidult tailwind has structural staying power, not just cyclical momentum.

Methodology

This analysis is based on YipitData's proprietary e-receipt and credit card transaction panel data, covering online and brick-and-mortar retail channels across the United States. The primary analysis period spans May 2025 through April 2026. Growth figures are calculated on a trailing-twelve-month (T12M) or past-twelve-month (P12M) basis. "Core Adult" is defined as toy and game shoppers aged 25 to 54. "Affluent Adult" refers to Building & Construction Toy shoppers aged 35 to 44 with household incomes of $150K+. "Child-Free HH" refers to households with no child present among known-status shoppers.

YipitData provides near real-time consumer transaction data and analytics across retail, consumer goods, and e-commerce. For more insights on toy industry trends, adult consumer demographics, and category-level spending analysis, visit yipitdata.com.