I was thinking about the crazy number of new releases there have been and wondering how this impacts the market. Some companies, Yoyofriends comes to mind, produce a copious amount of new yoyos. Now, Yoyofriends make some great yoyos, of which, I have a quite a few, but it seems like you don’t hear all that much about them lately. It seems like they’re so many new yoyos, it’s all just becoming white noise. I’m not just picking on Yoyofriends, this seems to be happening with many companies. There’s few yoyos that seem to have much buzz and these are often, re-releases of classic models. What does everyone think? Is the market getting saturated with new models?
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With this many releases I can wait and pick and choose yoyos that are particularly appealing. Also seems like certain things I thought would sell out pretty quick are holding stock, both here on yye and elsewhere, so I can wait to buy. Helps prevent fomo impulse buying for me.
I try to only get throws that I know I’m gonna love, and I’m cutting back on collecting right now anyway, I got a ton of yoyos and strings, just gonna try to jam tricks this year!
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That’s a good point!
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What I find difficult to deal with is the short lifespan of all those new releases in combination with the lack of comparison reviews or ability to try them in stores.
For me personally yoyofriends is most annoying with this. But other companies do it too. Before I have the ability to try a new release at a yoyo meeting or something the cool colors are already sold out, or they already released something else similar.
Maybe we should team up or something to be more active with sharing our own comparisons. Idk the solution.
But it also seems like an unstategic move to release that many similar yoyo’s so close to other releases. Like why would buy the yoyofriends Armageddon when the Artifice is out?
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It’s sad to see even CLYW getting into this mess these days. In the past, there were far fewer releases, and many more varied colors and editions. Nowadays, very few colors, and a lot of new releases.
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I would rather companies release all their colorways at once in general. Seems to be more of a trend as well that a couple options get released, I get excited about something and snag one, then a month later it’s like “oh, and here’s these sick new colorways that you would have rather had instead” 
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They do that on purpose to make you buy it twice
I hate it too.
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I love this current yoyo market. Tons of people are making throws that are outstanding so it’s not hard for someone new to jump in for cheap. Buying older throws has been a lot easier for me as well. Things that would go for way above retail are selling for at or below. Also since things aren’t as rare or collectible I’ve been just playing more.
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I used to get on the Yoyo sites daily just to see what new throws are out there, now, I don’t even look because you are right, there are so many out there now, but we have to remember that Yoyo companies are a business out to make money in a market that is really catering to a very small percentage of people. They have to come up with different tactics and strategies to support their companies (look how many have gone under) and they have to be able to manage the cost of the throws so people can afford them (lots of kids in the community and they have to be able to convince their parents that a $100 yoyo is not insane). I really do dislike when a company has V1, V2 a month later, V3 another month later, and so on - I don’t know the reasoning behind it, but it just makes me not want to purchase those. There are companies that are really committed to their base though - YoYoFriends and a couple others eat the cost of tariffs and are keeping costs down as much as possible!
Yeah, there’s obvious good things about having more choices, for sure.
I hate fomo marketing
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No such thing as too much saturation imo, even though I do kinda agree with the whole fomo colorways point.
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Companies need to generate excitement for their products. Small companies are limited to how much stock they can produce and how much they can afford to keep on their shelves. I can’t really fault the yoyo companies.
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Having so many models to choose from is a beautiful problem as a consumer. It has caused me to limit my scope though. All these small companies trying to carve a groove are who I think about. May they make all the right choices. It’s only getting tougher.
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CLYW only came out with one proper new release in 2025, the SUS Akita. The Leaf released at retailers in 2025 but was first released mid-December 2024 on the CLYW store. There’s also the Spirit edition pre-release of the new Dune this past year I guess but those 3 are the only new models from them which hardly seems a flood.
Otherwise, they’ve done a good few re-releases of pretty old designs but I don’t think that’s really the same thing.
I do agree that I miss when they used to do more colours per run. The 3 colours per run for their new releases means I’ve been waiting a good while for a Leaf colour I’m keen on. Though they have always had the first run be solids historically so that’s not new.
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I can only say that I have far too little money to try out so many new releases:(
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I think it feels worse than it is. A lot of the releases have only the tiniest incremental changes from previous releases. And it’s more a problem that a players seem to pretend that they’re completely new throws rather than a slightly updated older one.
Like, are we really going to pretend Hummingbird 2.0 is a shocking new yoyo?
I think a lot of releases are very very bland lately. There have been plenty truly interesting ones even if they’re kind of dumb (balls yoyo anyone?) but dumb doesn’t mean they’re not fun.
I think for a lot of people it’s just very hard to turn off the “gotta catch em all” mindset.
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This is how I feel about it. Nothing is really “new” about new releases and nothing coming out is going to drastically change the way you play.
And the whole “this yoyo can handle everything you can throw at it” or “this yoyo was designed to balance power, float, stability, and ease of movement” thing is a scam. Every new release is just a slightly modified version of something else that already exists and most releases in the past 10 years are fully capable of doing whatever tricks you know.
On the other hand, new and existing players have a lot of options to choose from these days, so that’s a good thing. I’m just of the opinion that once you’ve found your preferences and have something you like, you should focus more on learning and playing rather than always trying to get the best new thing. Then again, who am I to tell people what to do? YOLO
Anyway… Rant over. Stop consuming. Go out and play.
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Yes and no. You’re correct that the differences are small and incremental, but there are changes in trends. Yoyos are bigger in diameter than they once were and the trend to superwide, +50mm throws is new. There’s also quite a few yoyos with, smaller than standard C bearings. You also need to look at why you’re buying a new yoyo. I’ve never purchased a new yoyo because I thought it would make me a vastly better yoyoer. I buy new yoyos because I like a design and feel that the yoyo is well made. I enjoy yoyos as objects and i like the collecting aspect.
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I get it. For years, I was keeping up with what was coming out, trying different all different types of yoyos, and collecting to a degree. Eventually, I got to a point where I had enough variety in my rotation that I just stopped buying new ones.
Plus, the recent trends don’t really speak to me. I don’t need nor want a +50mm wide yoyo and I’m not crazy about non-C bearings.
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