Top 15 Best Selling Toys In History

Did you know that Barbie brand toys still sell at a rate of $3 billion a year? That’s insane! It’s easy to see how it made this list of best selling toys in history!

1. Barbie

The Christian Science Monitor reported that sales had declined for Barbie for the fourth consecutive quarter. That was in the middle of 2013. However, sales remain at $3 billion per year, and considering that the pint-sized princess has been a mainstay in little-girl culture for more than 50 years, we’d be willing to bet she’ll be around for a long time to come. Mattel estimated that as of 2006, they’d sold more than one billion dolls worldwide. Regardless of what’s going on with Barbie in the present, one cannot deny the overwhelming impact the toy and its accessories have had on popular culture.

2. The Yo-Yo

It really is impossible to tell how many yo-yos have been produced since their invention around 2,500 years ago, but anything with that kind of staying power has to be considered one of the best selling toys of all time.

3. Easy-Bake Oven

In February 2013, the Easy-Bake Oven celebrated its 50th anniversary. At that point, Hasbro reported more than 30 million ovens had been sold throughout the product’s existence along with another 150 million+ mix refills. The core product continues to sell at or near seven figures each year, so there are absolutely no signs of slowing down.

4. Radio Flyer

When Italian immigrant Antonio Pasin arrived in the US at the age of 16, he had no way of knowing that he would one day create a toy that still sells steadily close to a century later. Radio Flyer, based in Chicago, came in to existence in 1917 and as of 2012 had sold more than 100 million wagons and carved a spot in popular culture.

5. Silly Putty

In 1943, Scottish engineer James Wright, while working at General Electric’s laboratory in New Haven, Connecticut, combined boric acid and silicone oil in a test tube. The resulting compound became “polymerized,” according to the team at Crayola.

6. Transformers

The shapeshifting robots would have to go on any list of best selling toys despite the fact that they’ve only been around since the 1980s. Excluding the cartoon movie of that same decade and the hugely popular international toy line, the property has earned more than $2 billion in profits from just the three live-action films directed by Michael Bay.

7. G.I. Joe

The Greatest American Hero was introduced in 1964 by Hasbro as an 11 1/2-inch male figure that wore uniforms representing the US military and featured 21 moving parts. By the 1980s, the product had undergone a bit of a facelift, turning in to a series of 3 3/4-inch figures modeled after the popular cartoon and comic book characters.

8. Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels, the classic die cast toys from Mattel, were introduced in 1968. The company has gone on to produce more than 4 billion cars featuring 11,000 variations and over 800 models.

9. Etch-A-Sketch

In 1955, a 30-year-old electrician named Andre Cassagnes was installing a factory light switch plate and made some pencil markings on its translucent decal.

10. LEGOs

LEGO, derived from the Danish words for “play well,” were invented by carpenter Ole Christiansen in 1949. The LEGO company patented the idea just nine years later. The original LEGOs were just red-and-white bricks that interlocked in a way that allowed children to build things without limits.

11. Mr. Potato Head

The Spud was a groundbreaking toy in many ways. For one, it was the first toy with a dedicated TV commercial. Secondly, it earned more than $4 million in just a few months (in the 1950s).

12. Hula Hoop

The Hula Hoop is considered the first major fad toy in the sense that when sales were good, they were unheard-of-good, but once the public tired of the product, they plummeted. Now they’re back up to a respectable level, according to the manufacturer Wham-O, but nowhere near the crazy first year of production.

13. Star Wars Action Figures

Never mind the huge resurgence in popularity of Star Wars action figures. If you take just the Kenner line from 1978 to 1985, you’re dealing with a product that easily deserves consideration as one of the best selling toys of all time. How do we figure?

14. Rubik’s Cube

Created in 1974 but not licensed for sale until 1980, the Rubik’s Cube hasn’t had as long of a shelf life as many of the toys on this list.

15. Super Soaker

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Former NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson invented the Super Soaker in 1993. The gun was a reinvention of the classic water gun and was the summer-fun equivalent of bringing a bazooka to a gunfight.