During Licensing Expo last month Licensing International, the leading trade association for the licensing industry, released the executive summary of its 2025 Global Licensing Industry Study. The study outlines the continued worldwide sales growth of licensed products and services across categories including corporate, sports, entertainment, celebrities, fashion, and more.
The full study will be published later in the summer but looking at the top line data it’s already clear that there are some strong growth opportunities for the months and years ahead.
Firstly the industry continued to show remarkable resilience and growth in 2024. Despite ongoing uncertainty over the global economy consumers continued to vote with their wallets and show loyalty to brands, characters, and properties. The licensing industry once again outperformed the broader global retail market, further demonstrating the power of well-known and loved brands to drive sales.
The global brand licensing industry was worth $369.6+ billion in 2024 with the Entertainment/Characters segment growing by 5% to reach $149.8 billion. Although this growth was lower than previous years the writers’ and actors’ strikes likely had an impact.
Once the strikes were over there was a significant boost helped no doubt by the major theatrical releases of Universal’s Wicked, Disney’s Moana 2, and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3, all of which had strong licensing programs.
Revenue from the entertainment/characters segment was mainly split between Film & TV (43%) and Anime, Gaming, and Social Media (33%), showing the continued dominance of these categories. Interestingly the majority of revenue (77%) in this segment came from classic & franchise properties.
Amongst the segments that saw the strongest growth in 2024 were Music (+11.6%), Celebrity (+8.8%) and Sports (+3.6%).
And geographically the following regions saw above market average growth rates in 2024, South Asia/PAC (+6.8%), ME/Africa (+6%), Eastern Europe (+5.9%), and LATAM (+4.4%).
Even these top line details show some great opportunities to drive opportunities and incremental growth:
- Licensing continues to be a safe bet when launching products at retail.
- Classic and franchise IPs continue to make up the majority of the entertainment segment and are seen as safe bets by retailers.
- There are also growth opportunities in many smaller categories including music and fashion
- APAC, ME/Africa, Eastern Europe and LATAM offer opportunities for international expansion
Negosh is perfectly placed to support both IP owners and licensees looking to make the most of these growth opportunities. If you’re a licensee looking for IPs in the segments that are growing you can search for the right brands for your business on the Marketplace. If you’re a licensor looking to launch products in growing regions we can connect you with the right partners to make this happen, just add your listings to the Opportunity Board.