Tamagotchis are back as the pocket-sized pets ride a big wave of nostalgia | Canada Voices

On a recent August afternoon, hundreds of people wearing wedding dresses and tuxedos wrapped around the block of Cecil Community Centre in downtown Toronto. An attempt to facilitate the world’s largest wedding was in the works: Once the doors opened, they flooded inside, looked for matches and read their vows. Only the people weren’t the ones getting hitched – it was their beloved Tamagotchis.

A Tamagotchi – which translates to “egg watch” in Japanese – is a hand-held device with a small LED screen that houses a digital pet. Users are responsible for taking care of the egg-shaped toy, shepherding it from infancy to adulthood. That means feeding it snacks, playing games and yes, cleaning up its poop. In some versions, the pet can die if neglected and in other versions it can run away.

The frenzy around the toy – originally released by Japanese company Bandai in 1996 and hitting North American markets a year later – peaked in the early 2000s with sales plateauing as its target consumer base grew older. Recently, however, Bandai has seen a spike in sales.

Whether it’s thanks to nostalgia or escapism (or a lingering effect of the early days of the pandemic, when adults found themselves with more time on their hands), more grown ups are buying children’s toys. According to market research company Circana, global toy industry sales rose 7 per cent between January and June of 2025 compared with the same period last year – and 18 per cent of those buyers are 18 and older.

The trend back to childhood pastimes is visible in myriad ways, from adults rediscovering a love of collectibles to spending more time playing video games. Now, Tamagotchi clubs are making a resurgence with Bandai passing a milestone this August: more than 100 million Tamagotchis shipped worldwide.

The wedding is just one of many events Toronto Tamagotchi Club has hosted since it started in 2022. Founder Twoey Gray, 30, has also put on Tama-themed picnics, markets and drag shows, to name a few.

Ms. Gray had the idea to start the club after an unplanned two-month bike ride over 3,000 kilometres from where she lives in Toronto to Halifax. She slept in farm fields and graveyards, armed with only a tent and her Tamagotchi as a travel companion.

People’s first question was always to ask where she was going. “And the second question was, ‘Is that a Tamagotchi?’ It ended up being this amazing trust builder, almost in the same way it was when I was a little kid.”

When she returned to Toronto, Ms. Gray decided to launch the club, with the stated goal of countering a “cultural crisis of loneliness.” She posted on social media to advertise the first meetup. On a cold winter day at the end of 2022, about a dozen strangers met in Allan Gardens to connect over their shared admiration for Tamagotchi. Ms. Gray says the club helped her to find a community of kindred spirits. “One of the things I had learned on this journey was that we’re often mistaken when we believe that we’re the only one,” she says.

Today, there are more than 1,000 members and each meetup draws about 200 attendees. More clubs are cropping up around the world, including in Mexico, Chile and the U.K., with five in Canada and about 25 in the U.S.

The clubs are a place of common ground for many. “It’s a really eccentric, neurodivergent, queer, accepting, loving community made up of mostly people ages 20 to 40s,” says Ms. Gray.

William Maneja has been a fan of Tamagotchi since early childhood, receiving his first in 2005. He recalls growing out if his Tamagotchi phase, shoving the ones he collected away in his closet and not touching them for 15 years. “During the pandemic, I decided to clean my room, found my Tamagotchis one week,” he says, “I’m like, hey, I have nothing else to do during lockdown. I’ll try putting a battery in for a week and then I’ll put it away.”

But Mr. Maneja didn’t end up putting it away. He credits his toy with helping him weather a mental-health crisis he was going through at the time.

“It grows with you each day, and every day that it grows, it changes forms,” he continues, “For me, it was like I was looking forward to the next day, looking forward to how my Tamagotchi would grow, how it would change, depending on how I take care of it.”

Mr. Maneja logs his progress in taking care of his many – 30 to be precise – virtual pets on his Instagram account. Ms. Gray came across it soon after starting her club and reached out to him. He attended that first meetup and has been to every event since.

“Why does whimsy and joy have to leave our lives just because we grow up?” asks Mr. Maneja.

At the nuptials, after a countdown from 10, participants scrambled to match with compatible toys of the same version, age and sex. And then came the vows: “In sickness and health, through battery reset and Tamagotchi restarts, we promise to cherish each other and care for one another.” In the end, there were more than 100 unions.

Ms. Gray’s favourite part of the wedding was “seeing this room full of predominantly adults just like giggling and clapping and squealing because their Tamagotchis got married. It felt so odd and wonderful and special just seeing the excitement of this community.”