Global sales of licensed merchandise and services reached a groundbreaking $369.6 billion in 2024, a 3.7% increase compared to 2023.

Licensing International, the leading trade association for the $369.6+ billion global brand licensing industry, has released an executive summary of its 2025 Global Licensing Industry Study. The study shows the continued worldwide sales growth of licensed products and services across categories including corporate, sports, entertainment, celebrities, fashion, and more.

This year’s Global Licensing Industry Study will be published later this summer and was conducted by third-party research firm Brandar Consulting, LLC.

“The global brand licensing industry continues to show remarkable resilience and growth. In 2024, consumers demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the brands, characters, and properties they love—despite ongoing economic uncertainty,” said Maura Regan, President of Licensing International. “Once again, the brand licensing industry outperformed the broader global retail market, reinforcing the fact that trusted brands drive more consumer engagement and inform purchasing decisions.”

The 2025 Global Study results are derived from multiple sources of market information as well as survey-reported data from 56 countries and all seven major geographic regions. In all, the study’s analysis includes specific licensing data from 935 companies spanning the globe.

Key takeaways from the 2025 Global Licensing Industry Study include:

• The Entertainment/Characters segment grew 1.5% to reach $149.8 billion in revenue.
  • Growth was weaker in 2024 compared to previous years, due in part to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, which stalled production and pushed a number of titles to later dates on the calendar. There was a significant boost towards the end of the year, however, thanks to Universal’s Wicked, Disney’s Moana 2, and Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
  • Revenue was split between Film & TV (43%) and Anime, Gaming, and Social Media (33%).
  • The majority of revenue in this category came from classic & franchise properties (77%), while 20% stemmed from new properties.
• Top performing property categories in terms of growth rates in 2024 included Non-Profit (+16.8%), Music (+11.6%), Celebrity (+8.8%), Fashion (+8.1%), Corporate (+6.1%), and Sports (+3.6%).
• Several regions reported above market average growth rates in 2024, including South Asia/PAC (+6.8%), ME/Africa (+6%), Eastern Europe (+5.9%), and LATAM (+4.4%).

Further results from Licensing International’s 2025 Global Licensing Industry Study will be published in the complete report, including regional and country-by-country breakdowns for major markets. The full Global Study will be made available for free to Licensing International members (and publicly for purchase) later this summer.

About Licensing International

Licensing International is the leading trade organization for the $369+ billion global licensing industry. Licensing International’s mission is to foster the growth and expansion of licensing around the world, raise the level of professionalism for licensing practitioners, and create greater awareness of the benefits of licensing to the business community at large. Founded in 1985, Licensing International members in over 40 countries enjoy access to an array of benefits, including extensive educational programming and worldwide networking events. Visit LicensingInternational.org for more information and to utilize licensing’s definitive online resource.

About Brandar Consulting, LLC

Brandar Consulting, LLC is a 17-year old firm committed to providing companies subject matter expertise in the areas of Brand Licensing, Market Research, Market Analysis, Brand Extension and Business Strategy. The firm specializes in helping organizations start or proactively expand Brand/Trademark Licensing Programs. The key components in its suite of services are conducting brand equity & category extension research, in-licensing brand identification research, product market analysis, modeling brand royalty potential, and conducting factor analysis to set priorities for Licensing Plans. Visit www.brandar.com for more information.

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“The global brand licensing industry continues to show remarkable resilience and growth. In 2024, consumers demonstrated unwavering loyalty to the brands, characters, and properties they love—despite ongoing economic uncertainty” - Maura Regan