Barbie creator Mattel has revealed a sharp decline in sales and revenue as the toy maker feels the impact of Donald Trump’s sweeping international tariffs – a worrying sign for the toymaker ahead of the busy holiday season.
Mattel saw net sales fall 6 percent to $1.74 billion in the third financial quarter of 2025, falling short of Wall Street’s expectations. The company reported a net income of $278 million, down from $372 million, a year earlier – a decrease of $94 million.
The company noted in a Tuesday earnings report that worldwide gross billings (sales to retailers before adjustments) for dolls were $674 million and drop of 12 percent overall, driven by Barbie – one of its top earners. Barbie dropped 17 percent in gross billings and Fisher-Price reported a 19 percent decline, though the losses were slightly offset by an 8 percent increase for Hot Wheels.
It is the first time that Mattel has missed on both earnings and revenue expectations in three financial quarters, according to CNBC.
The toy industry is one of the hardest hit by the president’s global tariffs, due to its large reliance on goods from China – one of the countries hit hardest by the levies announced by the president. Trump set tariffs - costs that are typically passed on to the consumer - and that has led to higher costs for those products.
Toy companies and retailers also often use the second and third quarters to stock up on products before the holiday season.
According to The Associated Press, 80 percent of toys sold in the U.S. come from China.
Uncertainty over the extent of the levies has resulted in retailers – including Target and Walmart – delaying their orders from manufacturers such as Mattel.
In May the president threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on the company after it said it would diversify its production to other countries, but not the U.S.
“That’s OK. Let him go, and we’ll put a 100 percent tariff on his toy, and he won’t sell one toy in the United States, and that’s their biggest market,” Trump said, in response to the announcement by Mattel chairman and CEO, Ynon Kreiz.
Following Tuesday’s earnings report, Kreiz said: “While our U.S. business was challenged in the third quarter by industry-wide shifts in retailer ordering patterns, the fundamentals of our business are strong, with growth in consumer demand for our products across every region.”
However, he added, orders from retailers in the U.S. have accelerated since the fourth quarter began “significantly.”
“Looking into the balance of the year, we expect a good holiday season for Mattel and strong topline growth in the fourth quarter,” Kreiz said.
In addition, it was announced earlier Tuesday that Mattel had won part of a licensing deal for toy production on Netflix’s smash hit “KPop Demon Hunters,” along with Hasbro. Under the terms of the deal Mattel will develop toys including dolls, action figures, accessories and collectibles.
Mattel’s woes come against the backdrop of Trump’s ongoing trade war with China, which has resulted in a record-breaking rise in the cost of toys and games in the U.S.
In June it was reported that the price of toys, games and playground equipment saw a rise of 2.2 percent between April and May, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which analysts predicted would be bad for the industry in the long run.
The doll section of the industry, which includes accessories such as clothes, generated U.S. sales of $2.7 billion last year compared to $2.9 billion in 2023 and $3.4 billion in 2019, according to market research firm Circana.
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