By: Valentina Guo

These round stuffed plushies with cute designs have gained more fans and value than we ever thought they could. Their fans are of all ages, from toddlers to the elderly.

Squishmallows first hit the market in 2017, gained notable popularity in 2020 and have been a steady trend for two years, According to Hollywood Insider. Squishmallows have grown via various social media sites, but mostly TikTok. According to The New York Times, Squishmallow fans call it SquishTok. Another reason that Squishmallows have grown in popularity and prices, is, surprisingly, the pandemic! The painful year of the pandemic has given people a crave for comfort, and Squishmallow is just what they need!

“Even though the craze was coming before the pandemic, it certainly hit a fever pitch in the past year, and this craving for comfort is a big part of it,” said Kelly Deen, senior vice president of marketing at Jazwares, the parent company of Kellytoy, which created Squishmallows. The pleasantly designed plushies were made for hugging comfort, and some Squishmallows have even been made with a breathing mechanism inside, to help those with anxiety.

The New York Times wrote that “Jazwares said in early March that it has sold more than 73 million toys. (In February 2020, The Toy Book, a trade publication, reported that the company had sold 50 million Squishmallows.) According to the company, sales of Squishmallows have tripled in the past six months.”

For example, one of the rarest Squishmallows is Jack the Black Cat, as only 500 were in existence to celebrate the making of their 500th Squishmallow character. This Squishmallow was released in December 2020, and was sold out very quickly.

Squishmallows have grown popular to the point that rare Squishmallows such as Jack the Black Cat have been bought and sold for more than $1,000. There have even been scams for these plushies! People have been selling Squishmallows on Amazon, Stock X, Etsy, eBay, and have been found being talked about on multiple platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and more!

But that’s not all.

There are Squishmallows collectors: people who buy and would pay thousands of dollars for a Squishmallow. I would say Nick is one of them. Nick, according to Business, is a 27-year-old from Bel Air, Md., owns over 400 Squishmallows and over the past two years he estimates he has spent more than $2,000 on them. “It’s an addiction,” he said, going so far as to sneak behind the store and open a box sitting unattended in hopes of locating the Squishmallow he had traveled so far to buy. He found it.

Another collector, from The New York Times, “Melissa Whittaker, a 35-year-old cashier in New Hampshire, has more than 70 Squishmallows, each with a tag stating its name and unique traits. ‘I love their cute little faces,’ she said. ‘They’re very nice to hug, and you can double them up as pillows.’”

According to The New York Times, there are 800 Squishmallow characters, and many have been hunting for rare ones. Squishmellows have been around for 5 years and have gained popularity by people of all ages because of social media platforms and the pandemic. Have they peaked now, or will they keep rising, to soon become a company as big as Sanrio, or Pokemon? We have yet to find out.