Ever since the debut of Skylanders a few years ago, the toys-to-life figures have strived in the video game marketplace. This grand success eventually let to companies like Disney and even more recently Nintendo to jump into the mix with their own Disney Infinity and amiibo figures respectively. All three figures had an extremely successful 2014, which prompted Disney to release a statement last week saying they had the best sales in 2014. However, Activision has struck back by dismissing those claims entirely.
Gamespot says that while Disney says its stats are based on NPD data, Activision is reporting that they led the toys-to-life category for the third straight year according to their own internal estimates, NPD, and GfK. Specifically, the CEO of Activision, Eric Hirshberg, released the following statement.
“Skylanders continues its leadership position as the #1 kids video game franchise globally as well as in the U.S. by wide margins. As a global franchise in 2014, Skylanders is 30% bigger than its nearest competitor. And Skylanders Trap Team outsold its nearest competitor globally by 17%. As the creators of the ‘Toys to Life’ category, we are thrilled to continue to lead it for the third consecutive year.”
This is certainly interesting, as major companies like Disney and Activision are differing so greatly in opinion on this, but either way they both had a very successful 2014 and will likely continue that this year.
