Are young people who have lost sexual desire for the opposite sex buying lots of sex toys?

The headline finding

Huxiu (虎嗅) reports that China’s adult-toy market is booming even as surveys point to waning interest in traditional relationships among younger generations. It has been reported that market size has grown steadily since 2019 and topped roughly 1,900 billion yuan in 2024 — a rise of more than 60% from 2019. Another recent industry snapshot reportedly shows 42% of consumers buy sex toys at least once every three months, while only 8.7% have never purchased one.

Why the market is swelling

Several factors explain the surge. Consumers trade relationship complexity for low-cost, immediate pleasure: a mid-priced toy amortized over dozens of uses costs far less and carries none of the emotional or financial baggage of dating. It has been reported that 58.61% of women in a KnowYourself survey avoid discussing poor sexual experiences with partners, which helps drive demand for private, reliable alternatives. Faster delivery times, the de-stigmatization of sex, and the rise of female-focused brands — some even gaining international notice — have normalized buying and discussing these products.

Bigger social context

This trend sits alongside a wider “low-desire” phenomenon among Chinese youth: lower marriage and fertility intent, greater economic anxiety, and shrinking appetite for long-term commitments. That matters beyond consumer trends. Beijing has for years worried about demographic decline and now promotes policies to boost births and family formation; yet the pivot toward solo, convenience-driven pleasure complicates those aims. So are young people who report lower desire for the opposite sex simply buying lots of sex toys? Not exactly. It’s more accurate to say desire is being privatized and repackaged — redirected from costly social commitments into controllable, immediate forms of satisfaction.