The plushies trending hardest in 2026 come from a short list of brands: Jellycat, Pop Mart, Squishmallows, and licensed character plush such as Disney’s Stitch. Their company reports show strong growth, even though plush as a whole category slipped in the US last year.
Trend lists go stale fast, so this one is dated. Every figure below was checked against its source on October 15, 2026, and we plan to recheck the list each quarter.
What Are the Stuffed Animals That Are Popular Right Now?
Four groups of plush lead the 2026 numbers. Jellycat grew revenue 43 percent in 2025, Pop Mart’s plush sales rose 60 percent in the first half of 2026, Squishmallows passed 600 million units sold, and a Stitch plush won the industry’s Plush Toy of the Year award.
Those are company figures and award results, not a single sales chart. No public source ranks every plush brand on one scale, so treat any “number one” claim with suspicion. Our profiles of popular plush brands and their maker’s marks cover the older names in more depth.
Popular Plushie Brands Behind the 2026 Numbers
Jellycat
Jellycat’s accounts for the year to December 2025 show revenue up 43 percent to £450 million and pre-tax profit up 98 percent to £240 million. Business coverage of the filing also reported that its TikTok following more than doubled to 2.3 million.
The company spent that growth on places as much as products. It opened 22 new retail spaces and experiences in 2025, against three in 2024, including a Jellycat Airlines installation at Harrods.
One detail in the coverage does not match other accounts. The same report says Jellycat was established by Thomas Gatacre, while earlier business profiles name both Thomas and William Gatacre as co-founders.
Pop Mart and Labubu
Pop Mart reported first-half 2026 revenue of 17.17 billion yuan, up 23.8 percent. Its plush category alone brought in 9.82 billion yuan, a 60 percent jump, which is more than half of the company’s sales.
The mix inside that total is shifting. The Monsters family, home to Labubu, still earned more than any other line, but its share of revenue fell from 34.7 percent to 26 percent:
| Character line | Revenue (yuan) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| The Monsters (Labubu) | 4.45 billion | 26% of total, down from 34.7% |
| Twinkle Twinkle | 2.65 billion | Up 580.6% year on year |
| Crybaby | 1.63 billion | |
| Dimoo | 1.62 billion | |
| Skullpanda | 1.55 billion |
Labubu has not collapsed; the company’s growth simply moved to other characters. Pop Mart also pointed to a vinyl-plush keychain line, Pucky’s “Tap-Tap,” as a social media hit in Asia this year.
Squishmallows
Squishmallows launched in 2017. Variety reported in August 2026 that more than 600 million have been sold across 60 countries, with over 3,000 characters in the range.
Amazon MGM is now developing a family film around the brand with Jazwares, according to the same report. A movie deal says less about today’s sales than about how long the owners expect the line to last.
Licensed character plush
The Toy Foundation’s 2026 Toy of the Year awards named Just Play’s Disney Stitch Ultimate Stitch Interactive Feature Plush as Plush Toy of the Year. Bluey won License of the Year at the same ceremony in February 2026.
Most Popular Stuffed Animals 2026 Versus the Wider Market
Here is the part trend lists usually skip. Circana’s full-year data showed US toy sales up 6 percent in 2025, yet plush was among the steepest-declining categories, along with dolls and outdoor toys.
Build-A-Bear Workshop shows both sides in one company. It reported a fifth straight record year in fiscal 2025, with revenue of $529.8 million. By its second quarter of fiscal 2026, revenue was down 7.2 percent to $115.3 million, and the company cut its full-year forecast to between $500 million and $525 million.
“Today, the adult collector dominates the market.”
Jeremy Padawer, president of Jazwares, quoted by the New York Post on September 30, 2026
Our reading is that the plush boom is a brand story, not a category story. Buyers are concentrating on a few names with strong characters and social media reach, while generic plush loses shelf space.
Popular Stuffed Animals for Teens and Adult Buyers
Teen and adult demand drives most of the growth above. Variety describes Squishmallows as appealing to kids, teens, adults, and collectors, and Jellycat’s 2025 results were linked in business coverage to growing interest from adult buyers.
The New York Post, citing Circana data, reported that adults without children bought more than half of all toys sold in the first half of 2026. That figure covers all toys, not plush alone, so it supports the direction of the trend rather than a precise plush number.
Trend plush and collectible plush are different purchases. If you buy a trending character as a future collectible, keep the tags, packaging, and receipt, and buy from the brand or an authorized stockist. Viral demand also brings copies to market stalls and resale sites.
Plushies Trending Now, Judged Against Past Crazes
Plush crazes are older than social media. In 1909, a toy called Billy Possum was launched to replace the teddy bear and failed within months, a story we tell in how teddy bears became popular in the first place.
The 2026 numbers already show the same sorting at work. Pop Mart’s growth moved from Labubu to newer characters, while Jellycat and Squishmallows kept adding products and places to buy them. The question for each trending plush is whether people still want it once the feed moves on.
Sources
- Jellycat 2025 accounts, as reported by Business Matters, “Jellycat owners receive £179m dividend as profits nearly double,” October 2, 2026, bmmagazine.co.uk.
- Yahoo News UK, “Jellycat profits almost double to £240m as demand for viral toys soars,” 2026, uk.news.yahoo.com.
- POP MART, “POP MART Reports First Half 2026 Financial Results, Announces Future Stock Buyback Plan,” PR Newswire, August 20, 2026, prnewswire.com.
- Variety, “Squishmallows Movie in the Works at Amazon MGM,” August 14, 2026, variety.com.
- The Toy Association, “2026 Toy of the Year Winners Shine at Toy Industry’s Biggest Night,” February 13, 2026, toyassociation.org.
- The Toy Association, “U.S. Toy Industry Returns to Growth in 2025, Circana Reports,” February 3, 2026, toyassociation.org.
- Build-A-Bear Workshop, “Build-A-Bear Workshop Reports Fourth and Record Fiscal 2025 Results,” March 12, 2026, buildabear.gcs-web.com.
- Build-A-Bear Workshop, “Build-A-Bear Workshop Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2026 Results,” August 27, 2026, finance.yahoo.com.
- The MBS Group, “Making beautiful things that people remember: in conversation with William Gatacre,” 2021, thembsgroup.co.uk.
- New York Post, “Childless adults are spending more on toys than parents,” September 30, 2026, nypost.com.
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