Toy sales are projected to continue increasing through the end of 2021, according to the report, titled The Future of Toys. The report provided no figures to quantify those expected increases, however.

There was a small decline in toy sales at the beginning of 2019, from the comparable period the previous year, but that was the result of a 7 percent surge in toy purchases during the liquidation of Toys R Us stores in the first half of 2018, the report says.

“The sales trends for the first half of 2019 were distorted because of the comparisons to the first half of 2018, which is when the Toys R Us liquidation sales helped to increase toy-industry growth,” said Juli Lennett, an NPD vice president and toy-industry adviser, in a press release. “Although sales were down 9 percent in the first half of this year, the gains in the back half will make up for almost all of those losses. Despite the lingering and minor evaporation from the loss of Toys R Us, the toy industry is poised for growth in 2020 and 2021.”