The global licensing industry hit $369.6B in 2024, up 3.7% YoY—with e-commerce driving 31% of all licensed product sales. Entertainment/Character IP led the charge with nearly $150B in revenue.

But this growth isn’t just about product, it’s about presence. In a recent survey 83% of consumers reported feeling more positive about brands that engage meaningfully with entertainment and gaming. 65% reported that if a brand has a tie-in with a franchise they love, they are more likely to change their opinion of that brand, product, or service. IP today is a launchpad for world-building, fan experiences, and cultural relevance.

Top Trends:
Immersive Worlds – For Fans and Brands:

From parks to live events, real-world experiences are turning fans into participants. Universal made waves with the launch of Epic Universe, its new Orlando park featuring lands themed to Super Nintendo World, How to Train Your Dragon, and Harry Potter. Paramount announced a Top Gun Experience opening in Las Vegas in 2028, complete with jet simulators and a real-life Hard Deck bar. It also unveiled plans for Nickelodeon-branded hotels in Orlando and Anaheim, offering full-family, character-driven stays.

With younger consumers prioritizing IRL experiences, these provide a path for brands to interact with IP beyond the screen. These are entry points into high-affinity fandom, where you’re not interrupting the experience, you’re embedded in it.

Gaming as a Gateway:

Gaming platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft are no longer just distribution channels—they're world-building partners that help IP holders reach Gen Z and Alpha audiences with interactive, co-created experiences. Paramount brought Avatar: The Last Airbender to Fortnite, Roblox, and Minecraft, letting fans engage on their own terms. Meanwhile, TMNT x Fortnite saw over 5,000 fan-created games.

Allowing consumers to interact with brands in-game is more than a stunt, it's a way to build lasting brand affinity through immersive, participatory experiences.

Franchises Built to Last:

Studios are planning decades out—Jurassic, Avatar, DC, and Harry Potter and more have multiyear roadmaps across media, merch, and experiences. Studios now think in IP arcs—long-term blueprints designed to maximize cultural and commercial longevity for their franchises.

When studios map IP years in advance, it gives brands a chance to build deeper, longer-term partnerships that go beyond one-off tie-ins. Aligning with a franchise’s full lifecycle means more cultural relevance, more strategic planning, and more value over time.

Animation Resurgence:

Animation is one of the spaces experiencing a great resurgence. Warner Bros. has relaunched its animation studio to expand Looney Tunes, revive Tom & Jerry and The Flintstones, and is planning to release 2–3 original titles annually. Disney continues leaning into animation with Zootopia 2, Toy Story 5, and expanded Disney+ programming. Paramount is producing movies and series around Avatar: The Last Airbender, Garfield, and TMNT.

As tentpole animated content expands, brands gain access to beloved, globally recognized characters that can be activated across campaigns, products, and platforms. Unlike live-action IP, animation offers more flexibility around how characters are leveraged often without the cost or complexity of talent deals.

Bottom Line:
Licensing Expo 2025 highlighted that IP is no longer just about what you watch—it's about where you go, what you wear, how you play, and how you shop. The brands leading today are those embedding themselves into rich, participatory IP worlds—worlds that span screens, stores, parks, and platforms, and evolve with their audiences.

Why it matters: Leveraging IP provides brands with access to established fandoms, long-term cultural relevance, and storytelling engines that can grow over time.

Want to explore how your brand can: launch franchise based IRL activations, embed branded IP assets within gaming ecosystems, align long-lead product drops with tentpole releases, activate beloved characters in multichannel campaigns? Let’s connect.

‍