Kids just aren’t reading as much as they used to, and it’s not just a North American problem—the National Literacy Trust in the UK reported earlier this year that just 32% of kids ages eight to 18 say they enjoy reading in their free time, down from more than 60% in 2005. 

Next year, Spin Master wants to help reverse this trend, by making reading gamified and fun. “[We’re] going after the reading space,” says Marc De Vellis, president of digital games. And the company wants to write other brands into this new chapter. 

It’s a move that’s going to play out across all Spin Master divisions with force in 2026, says De Vellis—and it’s why the company acquired Lylli, a Swedish reading app with thousands of e-books and audiobooks for kids ages two to nine, in a US$20-million deal that closed on November 5.

Spin Master spent 2025 building up its subscription app Piknik, a bundle of nine apps (including PAW Patrol Academy) that had 453,000 subscribers as of Q3 this year. And now the company is looking to build the educational value of Piknik in 2026 by adding a reading component, and bringing in Lylli as part of the subscription offer. Spin Master also quietly developed another reading-based adventure game app called Superfonik that will join Piknik in the new year.

According to De Vellis, this new focus on reading will help make Piknik a more appealing choice to parents who want to make sure kids are spending their screentime in productive ways. It also creates new opportunities for Spin Master to work with publishers, by getting new titles in front of kids through Lylli, or through new publishing deals. “There’s a path for us to start digital-first and then get into physical books,” he adds. 

Spin Master’s push into reading is still in its early days, but conversations are happening internally about how the mission will be integrated across the company, De Vellis says. And some teams are already talking with third-party brands about how to make them a part of this strategy—through deals to add e-books and audiobooks in Lylli, for example.

“Expect a multi-year plan for reading that you will see play out across the company in digital, toys and entertainment,” says De Vellis. “Lylli is our foundation in reading for the year to come.”