Gen Z has revived a pocket-sized plaything that many Millennials fondly remember.
Tamagotchis — the digital devices in which users can care for a virtual pet — are hot commodities among the younger generation as of late, harkening back to their heyday in the ’90s.
Bandai Namco, the brand behind the popular toy, reported that worldwide sales doubled from 2022 to 2023, with demand so high that the company even opened its first brick-and-mortar store in the UK this year, per BBC.
While the Tamagotchi trend is growing — style savants have even fashioned the keychain knick knack to their purses as a playful bag accessory — the $20 toy has undergone a much-needed revamp since it launched nearly three decades ago.
“Now you can connect with friends, you can play on Wi-Fi and download different items, and that’s really combating that sense of fatigue that you might have gotten with some earlier models,” Priya Jadeja, the Tamagotchi brand manager, told BBC.
The premise of Tamagotchis is simple: Users are tasked with the responsibility of taking care of a virtual pet, but not tending to their pixelated creatures could cause them to perish.
“It’s about resource management, it’s about nurturing, caring for a little virtual pet, and that basic human emotion of taking care of something that I don’t think ever goes away,” Liz Grampp, the vice president of brand management at Bandai America, previously told Daily Mail.
“I think for kids who have only grown up playing with iPhones and iPads, it’ll feel unique, but the game play will still feel really familiar,” she added.
Tamagotchi enthusiasts tell BBC that nostalgia also plays a role in the game’s comeback, which launched in 1996.
A flurry of older fans are boasting about their Tamagotchis on social media.
“I got my first Tamagotchi back in primary school, my best friend had one back then and I have fond memories of playing with them together,” said Emma, who goes by Emmalution on YouTube.
She no longer had her original Tamagotchi, and was quick to purchase a modernized version of the toy last year, which she said “kickstarted an obsession.”
“I started a collection, curious to know what I’d been missing out on whilst I was too busy growing up,” she said.
“With how the world is at the moment, and how it has been for the past few years, it’s nice to just look down at your little pixel pet every now and again, forget it all for a moment to feed it a little snack or play a little game, and remember a much simpler time.”
