Top Toys for Christmas By Search Volume

With Christmas fast approaching, parents, grandparents, doting aunties and besotted uncles all over Ireland have been busy researching potential gifts for the children in their lives.

What’s the Hot Toy of 2021?

Every year there are a few “must have” toys of the year. Adaptive looked at Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends to gain some insight into which toys are most likely to end up in people’s carts and eventually under their Christmas trees.

The research demonstrated that between mid-September and mid-November, Lego; Paw Patrol; Spiderman; and Barbie were some of the most searched-for terms associated with toy shopping.

Perennial favourite Lego was particularly popular. Within this category, Harry Potter themed gifts along with Lego Star Wars products were the hot picks. With Lego Harry Potter products ranging in price from €16 all the way up to €400 for the Hogwarts Castle, Lego has all price points covered.

Lego also offers a wide selection of Star Wars themed sets, these range from €9.99 up to €799 for the Millennium Falcon! (All prices were correct at the time of writing).

PS5 on Course to be Top Games Console of Christmas 2021

For the big kids and teen gamers, the PS5 or Xbox Series X and S are popular choices. Last year, this segment of the market was plagued by supply issues and there were a lot of disappointed teens on Christmas morning.

Google Trends data for the 90-day period from mid-August to mid-November (see graph below) demonstrates that there have been similar levels of interest in both consoles, but the PS5 has just pipped the Xbox Series range to gain the larger number of searches over the past three months.

Some of the top search queries related to the PS5 were “Littlewoods ps5”, which was up +550%; “ps5 pre order Ireland”, which was up +180%; and “ps5 console Ireland”, which was up +160% for the same 90-day time period.

In addition, the query “Xbox series x Ireland” was up +130% for the same timeframe.

Meanwhile, Nintendo’s versatile, family-friendly Switch usually attracts an average of 40,500 searches per month in Ireland however, during September and October search volume increased to 49,500, which represents a 22% increase on the previous monthly average.

Evidence of Increased Interest in Christmas Shopping From Early October

Adaptive’s research demonstrated that consumers have been thinking about their Christmas shopping for several weeks, if not months. Google searches for the term “Christmas gift ideas” started to accelerate in October, growing 30 percent between mid-October and the last full week of that month.

Searches for toy retailers increased significantly over the same period. A quick glance at Google Trends data (see graph below) shows that search interest in Smyth’s Toys Superstores, one of Ireland’s leading toy retailers, began to rise as far back as the beginning of September and that it then climbed significantly from mid-October to the end of that month.

So, the moral of this Christmas story is: if you haven’t already got a LEGO Harry Potter set hidden in a cupboard or a PS5 in the attic, it’s time to get searching, start shopping and look forward to a very happy Christmas!