The Fantasy Sex Toy Index 2026: Europe
Data report · Updated 4 November 2026
What people in five European countries are looking for when they look beyond the ordinary, with local-language search terms included. Four years of search data, five European countries and the wider world, in one place. Free to use with a credit and a link.
By Emily Conway, Creative Director, Dragon Dildo®
Dragons have long been the face of fantasy toys. They are still hugely popular. But when we looked at what people actually search for, the picture in 2026 is more interesting than "everyone wants a dragon". Here's what we found.
Five European countries, in local languages
We looked at five European countries and included local-language search terms (Drachen, gode cheval, caballo, draken, cavallo).
| Country | Most search interest, 2025 |
|---|---|
| France | Horse |
| Spain | Horse |
| Netherlands | Horse |
| Germany | Horse and monster close |
| Italy | Horse and monster close |
In German, French and Italian, "monster dildo" can also just mean "very large", so read monster with care.
Worldwide, horse has overtaken dragon
In 2022, dragon had more search interest than any other fantasy toy we tracked worldwide. By 2025, horse had moved ahead of it.
It isn't the same everywhere. In the UK the two were level in 2025, and dragon is back in front so far in 2026. In Australia, dragon led in both years.
The fastest growth is in the stranger creatures
Worldwide from 2022 to 2025, the big names grew more slowly than tentacle and knot. Tentacle roughly doubled, and knot designs rose 87%. Interest is spreading beyond the classic creatures.
2026 so far: knots keep climbing
Worldwide, from January to September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, dragon, horse and monster are all down. Knot designs and general fantasy searches are still rising. Tentacle has eased back 7% after its big run.
Elsewhere
By search interest, from October 2021 to September 2026:
- Wales led the UK for dragon, horse and monster. Fittingly for the land of the red dragon, that includes dragon.
- In the US, West Virginia led for monster and Alaska led for dragon.
By search interest in 2025, horse and dragon were close in Canada (horse just ahead), and dragon led in Australia.
What people actually buy (our UK store)
Search shows interest. Sales show what people buy, at least at our UK store. Monster designs were the best sellers at 26.5% of units.
Knots cut across creatures. About a quarter of fantasy dildo units sold (24.8%) had a knot, from dogs and wolves to monsters and even a few dragons and horses.
Wales stands out again. From October 2025 to September 2026 it placed 6.1% of our UK orders, with 4.6% of the UK population (ONS mid-2023). That's about 1.3 times its share. Scotland was about 1.2 times, and England in line.
These are shares of sales at our UK store, so they reflect its range and promotions, not the whole market, and they don't describe sales in Europe. We publish percentage shares only.
Romantasy, BookTok and the toys
Some coverage links fantasy toys to the romantasy boom, so we compared the two.
From 2022 to 2025, worldwide search interest in romantasy, BookTok and Fourth Wing rose, and so did interest in monster and tentacle toys.
In 2026 the picture is mixed. Worldwide, from January to September 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, interest in romantasy nearly doubled and BookTok rose by about half, while Fourth Wing fell by almost a quarter. Among the toys, dragon (-10%), monster (-6%) and tentacle (-7%) fell, while knot (+21%) and general fantasy (+22%) rose.
Moving together for a few years doesn't show that one causes the other, and neither does a mixed picture in 2026.
Book search isn't a measure of book sales. In the US, print fantasy unit sales fell 8.7% in 2025 while romance rose 3.9% (Circana BookScan, reported by Publishers Weekly, which notes BookScan has no romantasy category and names a romantasy title, Onyx Storm, as the big driver in romance). In the UK, science fiction and fantasy sales reached a record of just under £84m in 2024, led by romantic fantasy (NielsenIQ BookData, reported by The Bookseller).
What it means
"For years the fantasy category meant dragons. Over the last few years the data shows people looking further, to tentacles, knots and creatures you won't find in a myth book. It's a category growing up."
Emily Conway, Creative Director, Dragon Dildo®
How we did it
- Search data: Google Trends (web search, all categories). English-term findings were pulled twice, on 26 and 27 October 2026. Each holds in both pulls, with each figure within 10 points and the same direction. Figures shown are from the 26 October pull. Trends over time are monthly, January 2022 to September 2026. Regions cover October 2021 to September 2026.
- Local languages: local-language terms were combined with the English terms for Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, using matching word forms for dragon, horse, monster and tentacle in each country. A wider dog, wolf and knot group was also pulled; its word lists differ by country and it led nowhere, so it isn't in the table. Pulled twice, on 31 October and 2 November 2026. The European findings above come from these pulls and hold in both, with the figures for the leading terms within 10 points.
- Book and culture terms: romantasy, BookTok, monster romance, Fourth Wing and ACOTAR, Google Trends, worldwide, pulled on 27 and 31 October 2026. They are compared with the toy terms by direction of change only, each on its own scale, because most of them are far larger and aren't on the toy scale. Monster romance and ACOTAR were pulled but aren't quoted above.
- One scale: English terms were compared in groups of five, linked by a shared term, so every value sits on one scale per country. Local-language terms were compared in one group of five per country.
- Interest, not volume: Google Trends shows relative search interest (0-100), not the number of searches.
- Why 2022: Google changed how it collects data on 1 January 2022, so we compare from 2022 onwards. October 2026 is a partial month and is left out.
- Small countries: Google rounds values for small regions. With English terms alone, only dragon, horse and monster had enough data in France, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy.
- Ovipositor: tracked, but left out of rankings because it also picks up insect-biology searches. Werewolf is too small to measure reliably, and demon rests on a small base.
- Sales: Dragon Dildo® UK store, net units sold, October 2025 to September 2026, fantasy dildos only. Products are grouped by creature from their names. Knotted products are those in our knotted dildo collection on 30 October 2026, across all creatures.
- Population: ONS mid-2023 estimates.
- Raw data: view the data files.
Sources
- Google Trends (Google LLC), trends.google.com. Web search, all categories. FAQ about Google Trends data.
- Office for National Statistics, Population estimates for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2023.
- Publishers Weekly, Jim Milliot, 9 January 2026, Print book sales rose slightly in 2025 (Circana BookScan data).
- The Bookseller, Alex Call, 14 November 2025, Romantastic: Romantic Fantasy leads SFF to its best-ever year (NielsenIQ BookData).
- Dragon Dildo® UK store, sales data, October 2025 to September 2026. Percentage shares only.
Use this data
Journalists, writers and researchers are welcome to use any chart or figure. Please credit "Dragon Dildo® Fantasy Sex Toy Index 2026" and link to this page.
Press and written comment: Emily Conway, press@dragondildo.co.uk