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Children’s Franchise Expands into Interactive Gaming and Merchandise

Talking Tom & Friends Franchise Leaps into Interactive Gaming and Retail Merchandise with 2025 Expansion

Talking Tom & Friends, the children’s franchise that has generated more than 20 billion mobile game downloads since 2010, today announced a strategic expansion into interactive gaming and licensed merchandise designed specifically for early learners. The move positions the brand at the center of a booming $4.8 billion U.S. educational gaming market that has grown 30 % year-over-year, according to industry analysts.

The franchise’s first mobile title built entirely for kids under nine—Talking Tom & Friends: Playworld—launched in August 2025 and shot into the top-five free kids’ apps on both Apple and Google stores within two weeks. The game blends voice-activated mini-games with augmented-reality pets, allowing children to feed, groom and adventure with characters in real-world settings. Early data show average session times of 18 minutes, double the category median, and a 45 % seven-day retention rate, outperforming most competitors in the preschool segment.

“Parents are demanding screen time that is both safe and beneficial,” said Sam L. Johnson, CEO of Outfit7, the franchise’s parent studio. “By embedding evidence-based literacy and numeracy prompts inside character-driven play, we are turning passive swiping into active learning without sacrificing the fun that made Talking Tom a household name.”

Market tailwinds support the expansion. Common Sense Media’s 2025 census found that 78 % of U.S. 8-year-olds now own a mobile device, up from 53 % in 2021, while 60 % of Roblox’s 79 million daily users are under 16, confirming Gen Alpha’s preference for immersive, interactive content.

Federal technology grants have also placed 1.3 million new tablets in K-2 classrooms since 2023, creating a built-in distribution channel for educational franchises.

Complementing the digital push, Outfit7 has partnered with 30 national retailers to ship a 120-SKU merchandise line ahead of the holiday season. Initial products—STEM-based build-a-bot kits, voice-changing plush and interactive storybooks that unlock in-game rewards via NFC—rolled out to 4,200 Walmart and Target stores on November 1. POS data collected by NPD Group show the plush segment sold through 62 % of inventory in the first ten days, making Talking Tom the fastest-growing kids’ property in the plush aisle for Q4.

“Extending our IP into tactile play is not a licensing after-thought—it is a calculated response to research indicating that hybrid digital-physical experiences increase executive-function skills by 27 % compared with screen-only activities,” Johnson noted. “Our goal is to become the category-defining omni-platform franchise for children under ten within three years.”

The company will support the launch with a $15 million marketing campaign across YouTube Kids, Nickelodeon and Disney+, featuring 15-second interactive spots that allow viewers to adopt a virtual pet instantly through a QR code. Incremental revenue from gaming and merchandise is projected to lift Outfit7’s top line by 38 % in 2026, according to internal forecasts verified by Deloitte.

About Talking Tom & Friends

Created in 2010, Talking Tom & Friends is owned by Cyprus-based Outfit7 Limited. The portfolio spans 25 mobile games, two animated series and a YouTube channel with 140 million subscribers. Characters appear in 400-plus licensed products available in 190 territories and 46 languages.