Over the past year, the Pudgy Penguins collection has seen over a million of its plush toys sold, as confirmed by CEO Luca Schnetzler. This surge in sales was highlighted on May 13 by Schnetzler, who noted the global retail expansion of the project.
Schnetzler humorously remarked, “Who would’ve thought that the Consumer Crypto revolution was going to be led by fat flightless birds,” celebrating the unexpected success of the plush toys. This follows the announcement on May 12 that Pudgy Toys partnered with Pudgy World are now available at Target stores across the United States.
The Pudgy Penguins, an NFT series launched in 2021, consists of 8,888 vibrant penguin avatars. After a challenging start with allegations of a rug pull under its original founder, Schnetzler acquired the brand in 2022 for $2.5 million, steering it towards stability and success.
Additionally, these plush penguins are available at Walmart, contributing further to their popularity. The Pudgy Penguins business model also benefits NFT holders, allowing them to earn 5% royalties from the net revenues of sales of the physical toys that feature their unique Pudgy Penguin.
On the digital front, OpenSea lists the floor price for the NFT versions at approximately 12.87 ETH, or around $37,580. The most notable recent sale from this collection was Penguin #6873, which fetched 400 ETH, roughly $1.17 million.
Sales of the NFTs peaked in mid-February, with a high of 439 transactions per day at an average of 20 ETH each. Although there has been a slight dip, the sales volume as of May 6 still stands at about 269 transactions per day.
CryptoSlam ranks Pudgy Penguins as the twelfth highest in terms of secondary NFT sales over the past week, achieving $2.2 million in sales. In broader NFT market news, Bitcoin Ordinals and CryptoPunks are currently leading as the highest-selling and most popular NFT collections, respectively.