Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Toy, Hobby and Game Store Revenue Benchmark
A toy, hobby and game store sells toys, board games, collectibles, model kits and craft supplies to families and enthusiasts, and earns on retail margin that depends heavily on the holiday season and on the mix between mass-market brands and specialist lines. Knowledgeable staff and in-store events set a specialty store apart from big-box competitors.
Average Toy and Hobby Store Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every retailer of toys, games, hobby and craft supplies with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of stores gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$2,534,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
11,360
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $28.8 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $28.8 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 11,360 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $2,534,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers, NAICS 459120. The category covers retailers of toys, games, hobby supplies and craft supplies. Sewing and needlework stores, sporting goods stores and video game retailers of electronics are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4591: 459110 Sporting Goods Retailers; 459130 Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Retailers; 459140 Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for toy, hobby and game stores specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.
Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Toy retailing is unusually seasonal, and a store that misjudges holiday inventory can fail on cash flow while its yearly sales look healthy.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈12% |
Payroll share of receipts, Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 12.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share typical of goods retailing, where the merchandise itself is the main cost and staffing rises and falls with the holiday season.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods, so nothing on this page shows what a store keeps after paying its suppliers.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 11.3 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.42 |
Scale and ownership, Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 11.3 people, and the industry counted 1.4 employer establishments per firm. Staff counts in this category swell during the holiday season and shrink afterward, so the annual average sits between the two, while the establishments per firm figure shows a mix of chain branches and single specialty stores.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
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Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Toy, Hobby and Game Store: the seasonal and category questions behind the average.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How concentrated is the year? A large share of annual toy sales lands in the final weeks of the year, so cash must be committed to inventory months before it returns. A store can report solid annual receipts and still struggle through the spring.
- Mass-market toys or specialist hobby lines? Licensed toys sold by every large retailer compete on price, while model kits, tabletop games and craft supplies attract enthusiasts who value advice and range. The two models share this category but have different margins and different competitors.
- Which competitors set the price? Big-box stores, online marketplaces and discount chains sell the most popular toys at low margins, and a specialty store cannot win on those items alone. Its result depends on the share of sales in products where price is not the deciding factor.
- Are events part of the model? Game nights, tournaments, workshops and birthday parties build a community around a store and fill quiet weekdays, but they need space, staff time and often prizes or supplies. Their contribution appears in loyalty rather than in a clean revenue line.
- What does returned or recalled stock cost? Safety recalls, damaged packaging and unsold seasonal lines are absorbed by the store unless supplier terms say otherwise. The share of inventory that fails to sell at full price is a central number no receipts table reports.
- How much space does inventory demand? Toys and craft supplies are bulky and low in value per shelf, so a well-stocked store carries high occupancy cost relative to sales. Rent in a family-friendly location may absorb much of what the margin leaves.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each store with paid staff. Sewing and needlework stores are counted separately, and a hobby seller working alone online is not counted here.
The survival curve is a sector-level series from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and describes the whole Retail Trade sector, not this business type on its own.