Video game toy sales slump as Moshi Monsters falters

Sales of toys based on video games fell 14 per cent in 2014, NPD has told MCV.

The decline is almost entirely down to a drop in popularity of Moshi Monsters products. NPD tells MCV that if Moshi Monsters was discounted from all of its numbers (now and historically), then video game toy sales would have actually risen year-on-year.

It was also a challenging year for ?Angry Birds. Sales of Angry Birds toys and products fell 50 per cent in value year-on-year, although these products accounted for a smaller proportion of the market.

The most popular toy brand of 2014 was Minecraft. In total, 69m was generated from video game toys.

Not included with these figures is sales of toys-to-life products such as Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Amiibo. Sales of these products hit 92m last year, down from 97m in 2013.