In an industry dominated by fashion, five toy brands have a history spanning fifty to one hundred years and have repeatedly ranked among the top ten for years. Since at least 2015 they have been near the peak on the US market list. Brand Finance, a British consultancy, evaluates which toy brands hold the most value in the eyes of the market. The ranking also serves as a mirror for identifying which brands rule store shelves. Eduardo Irastorza, an EAE Business School marketing specialist, notes a clear link between the most valuable brands and the best sellers. While the positions shift, the field remains firmly anchored in classic, enduring names.
Lego stands as the undisputed leader. The study aims to rank the strongest brands, and Lego has held first place in the series since 2015. In second and third places, Fisher-Price, known for baby toys, and Barbie remain firmly in the top five, even as Bandai Namco rose into the mix in 2017.
That year marked a turning point for Bandai Namco, which fueled the brand value of its portfolio with a wave of popular characters. The Tamagotchi and much of the Dragon Ball universe surged, rising sevenfold from about 136 million to more than one billion dollars, moving from fourteenth to second place. The rise followed the bandai namco approach adopted after a merger in the early 2000s, applying the strategy across both corporate and public channels. Nerf darts and water guns have consistently held a top five position, while Hasbro has also remained a steady presence in the top ten, closing the quartet in 2023.
Irastorza explains that brand value matters because children are highly responsive to brand recognition. Even a strong architecture without a recognizable brand loses some impact. While a lesser-known brand can endure for a time, lasting success requires a place in the market. The top ten list supports a theory that the brain can recall about seven brands within a category, except in industries where a brand dominates.
The ongoing success of these toy names is not solely about recognition. The key lies in the ability to reinvent themselves and to respond to two unavoidable factors: technology and fashion. Lego provides a paradigmatic example: it began as a traditional toy but expanded by adding visual media, films, and video game tie-ins. Notable series inspired by Harry Potter and Star Wars illustrate this evolution.
Sustained audience loyalty also plays a decisive role. Toy brands become enduring fixtures when they meet essential conditions: loyalty from teens and adults alike. Lego Star Wars fans can be thirty or forty years old, while Barbie retains a devoted collector base as well. Irastorza emphasizes that lasting prominence hinges on ongoing relevance and strong market presence.
The influence of fashion on the rankings underscores how heavily style and trends shape the toy industry. The Brand Finance data show that names such as Hot Wheels, Dragon Ball, and Magic: The Gathering, among others, moved in and out of the top ten by 2023. Several brands that occupied mid-to-lower positions eight years earlier had faded from the main list, leaving a quieter footprint on the broader ranking.
There is also a broader list of twenty-five toy brands with the highest market value. Some brands, like My Little Pony, experienced a noticeable decline after peaking between 2017 and 2019, while others such as Transformers showed a seesaw pattern, rising from nineteenth to eighteenth place and peaking at thirteenth in 2019 before slipping again. Hello Kitty did not appear in earlier years but made the list for 2023. Disney Princess and Monster High followed a similar pattern, with Monster High briefly returning to the top ten before slipping again.
Another interesting trend is Star Wars entering the competition this year at the fifteenth spot. It also leads Brand Finance’s measures of brand strength, a metric that reflects marketing investment, stakeholder balance, and workforce behavior. The consultancy notes that the franchise’s success in recent years, driven by a large slate of successful movies and television series, has yielded strong brand equity and elevated toy reputations among consumers.