Toys are riding on the momentum of AI, and are enjoying hot sales in China.
In Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province, some technology companies have started to sell AI toys via live stream.
One of the firms that have been selling their AI toys online has seen a rapid growth in sales.
"Our turnover [of AI toys] during live stream can reach 520,000 yuan (about 71,714 U.S. dollars) for a day. Actually, our sales volume in January doubled compared with December last year," said Gao Feng, head of a local innovative technology company.
According to data from JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce platform, AI toys are extremely popular in early education for three- to six-year-old kids. In the first month of 2025 alone, the sales volume of toys equipped with AI technologies increased six folds from that of the previous month.
Statistics of another Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao.com show that, on the supply side, over 100 producers have been actively preparing relevant products. It is expected that a large number of AI toys will be put on sale in May or June.
"The key moment [for AI toys] could be this year, and it may continue expanding in the next one or two years. Especially, as relevant techniques, algorithms and models are getting more and more mature, along with the emergence of DeepSeek, they will help the entire toy industry to flourish," said Chen Liang, vice president of Chenghai Toys Association.
According to relevant data, the market size of AI toys in 2024 reached 18.1 billion U.S. dollars. By 2033, the number is expected to surge to 60 billion U.S. dollars, with the Asian market as the lead.
Sales of AI toys see explosive growth in China
