If the pandemic didn’t have you attempting to make a new recipe, read more books, or take up a new hobby, chances are you gave jigsaw puzzles or sudoku a try, or maybe even jumped on the Wordle bandwagon.
Two years into the pandemic, are people over puzzles?
We put together the pieces with data from our recent study of Canadian independent booksellers and SalesData, our national sales tracking service for the Canadian English-language trade print book market.
Buying puzzles at the bookstore
Bookstores rarely only sell books. And according to our study, The State of Independent Bookselling in Canada 2020, 87% of Canadian independent bookstores sell puzzles.
For these independent bookstores, puzzle sales account for 2-3% of their total revenue in 2020, depending on their bookstore’s size. And this number might actually be higher. For this study, we had separate categories for independent bookstores to share their puzzle sales, compared to sales for other toys and games. It’s likely that some sales numbers for puzzles remained in the toys and games category. Depending on their bookstore’s size, toys and games accounted for anywhere from 3-9% of total revenue in 2020.
Are these more or less puzzles than average?
Definitely more. We found that sales of puzzles increased for 80% of independent bookstores from 2019 to 2020. By comparison, toys and games sales increased for 45% of bookstores, while also decreasing for 28% of them.
Changes in merchandise sales between 2019 and 2020.
Note: Totals will not equal 100% as “N/A” answers have been excluded.
Tracking puzzle sales in the book market
Did puzzles stay popular in the book market in 2021?
There are three puzzle-related BISAC categories that we can use to track the sales of puzzles in the Canadian book market:
Games & Activities / Puzzles
Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles
Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles & Word Games
These categories can include books of logic puzzles, dot-to-dot, sudoku, trivia, and even jigsaw puzzles if they have been given an ISBN.
Looking at the popularity of these BISAC categories in 2020 and 2021, sales of the Games & Activities / Puzzles category increased 46% from 2020 to 2021, while sales of Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles decreased 13%. Although occupying a much smaller marketshare, Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles also saw huge increases in 2021, leaping up 3,000% from 2020.
The sales of Games & Activities / Puzzles and Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles in 2020 and 2021.
Puzzles for general trade market
The general trade BISAC Games & Activities / Puzzles is one of the most popular puzzle category in the Canadian book market. And it’s growing. This category had 334 new ISBNs issued in 2021, compared to 300 new ISBNs in 2020.
These are the top 3 bestselling puzzles in the Games & Activities / Puzzles category in 2021:
Dinosaurs Educational Jigsaw and Book by North Parade Publishing (9781839230752)
The World Educational Jigsaw and Book by North Parade Publishing (9781839230745)
Oceans Educational Jigsaw and Book by North Parade Publishing (9781839234040)
Puzzles for Young Adult market
The smallest of the three markets for puzzles, the Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles category is slowly growing. In 2021, this category debuted three new ISBNs, up from zero the year before.
Here are top 3 bestselling puzzles in the Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles in 2021:
The Logic Puzzle Book for Teens by Chris King (9781648767135)
The Ultimate Activity Book for Teens by Valerie Deneen (9781648763205)
The New York Times on the Web Crosswords for Teens by Frank Longo (9780312289119)
Puzzles for Juvenile market
The other popular category for puzzles is Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles. This category continues to solidify its popularity with 81 new ISBNs on the market in 2021, an increase from 61 new ISBNs in 2020.
And these are the top 3 bestselling puzzles in the Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles category in 2021:
Book and Jigsaw: Human Body by Usborne Publishing (9781474985291)
Book and Jigsaw: Night Time by Usborne Publishing (9781474970532)
Book and Jigsaws: Solar System by Usborne Publishing (9781474960298)
Taking a closer look at jigsaw puzzles
Like we mentioned earlier, jigsaw puzzles can and do enter the Canadian book market if they’re given an ISBN, even though they aren’t books.
And looking at the bestselling puzzles of 2021 in all three BISAC categories above, jigsaw puzzles dominate the trade and Juvenile markets. Was this popularity new in 2021?
To find out more about jigsaw puzzles specifically, we used SalesData to identify and compare the top 100 jigsaw puzzles from 2020 and from 2021. Here’s what we found out.
For the top 100 jigsaw puzzles from 2020:
96% are classified as Games & Activities / Puzzles.
4% are classified as Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles.
None are classified as Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles & Word Games.
Of these top 100 jigsaw puzzles, 45% of them were published in 2020, 31% in 2019, 10% each in 2018 and 2017, and 4% in 2016 or earlier.
Publication dates for the top 100 jigsaw puzzles of 2020
By comparison, for the top 100 jigsaw puzzles from 2021:
95% are classified as Games & Activities / Puzzles.
5% are classified as Juvenile Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles.
None are classified as Young Adult Non-Fiction / Games & Activities / Puzzles & Word Games.
Of the top 100 jigsaw puzzles for 2021, only 31% were published in 2021, while 40% were published in 2020, 14% in 2019, 7% each in 2018, and 8% in 2017 or earlier.
Publication dates for the top 100 jigsaw puzzles of 2021
Comparing the sales of the top 100 jigsaw puzzles for 2020 and 2021, the top 100 jigsaw puzzles in 2021 sold 13% more overall than the top 100 jigsaw puzzles for 2020.
The sales of the top 100 jigsaw puzzles in 2020 and 2021.
So, are people over puzzles?
Not quite.
While the sales of puzzles doesn’t trend up for every category from 2020 to 2021, the number of new ISBNs in each category are all increasing year-over-year.
And for jigsaw puzzles specifically — even though jigsaw puzzles published in 2020 account for the majority of the bestsellers in both 2020 and 2021, the sales of jigsaw puzzles seems to be trending up for Canadians, with the sales of 2021’s most popular jigsaw puzzles outpacing 2020’s.
Maybe puzzles really are the perfect pandemic pastime!
A deep dive into book prices in Canada from our upcoming Canadian Book Consumer Study 2023.