According to NPD’s Global Toy Trends and Forecasts 2009 report, featured on Playthings global toy sales rose by $2.4 billion in 2008 when factoring out changes in currency rates. Based on current exchange rates, global sales were down 0.8 percent in 2008, to $78.09 billion.

Sixty-five percent of that global toy business came from 10 countries, NPD said, with North America representing 30 percent of worldwide toy sales, followed by Europe at 29 percent, and Asia at 27 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the US is the world’s top toy market, contributing $21.7 billion in sales, followed by Japan and China, respectively.

Asia and Africa are expected to strengthen their contributions to the world toy market in the next few years, with Asia likely to overtake the US and Europe by the end of 2012, NPD predicts.

North America would then become the second largest market among global regions, contributing 28 percent of global sales, and Europe would represent 27 percent, which is a two percentage point loss compared to 2008.

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The U.S and Europe represented a combined 57 percent of the world’s toy consumption in 2008, a three point decrease from 2007.