Funflation Drives Up Cost of Hobbies
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Right 50%
1 left · 0 center · 1 right
What happened
Bank of America Institute card data showed U.S. spending on hobbies — arts and crafts, hobby shops, and retailers of skiing, hiking, camping, and scuba gear — rose 7.9% year on year in August 2026, twice the 3.4% rise in transactions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recreation index, which includes video and audio, pets and pet services, sporting goods, photography, and recreational reading, increased 2.7% in the 12 months through August, and Census Bureau figures showed sales at sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores up 10.7% over that span, compared with 6% for total U.S. retail and food-services sales. Bank of America analysts linked recent hobby-spending growth in part to a shift away from travel after jet fuel reached $194 a barrel in the week ending September 18, up 116% from the prior-year average during a U.S.-Iran war, and U.S. airfares rose 26.5% year on year as of August. In the three months to August, older millennials spent more than twice as much per person on hobbies as Gen Z, the lowest-spending group, and per-person video-game spending rose across age groups.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 2 articles
2 of 2 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
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- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: John Gathergood and Bank of America Institute
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 2 of 2
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: Bank of America analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data, U.S. Census Bureau Advance Monthly Retail Trade Report, Bank of America card data
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- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 27, 05:00 UTC by CNBC, naming its source. First document in the first report, from CNBC (Bank of America analysis).
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- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The hobby-spending surge is not the across-the-board splurge left-leaning coverage describes. CNBC reports that consumers keep buying even as fun gets costlier, but it leaves out Gen Z's near-zero transaction growth in the same Bank of America data after a large gain a year earlier. Right-leaning coverage reports that stall and ties last year's rotation into hobbies to slower after-tax wage growth. Fox Business therefore shows older millennials carrying the total while the youngest cohort eases off.
The two write-ups hang the same spending rise on opposite verbs. Left-leaning coverage says consumers are "splurging anyway." Right-leaning coverage says the cost of having fun is "getting serious."
How much of older millennials' hobby spending is actually for their children?
Bottom line
CNBC's funflation story still has shoppers "splurging anyway." Fox Business is the one that reported Gen Z hobby transactions were basically flat after nearly 16% growth a year earlier.
The receipts — 5 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Gen Z hobby spending showed near zero transaction growth in August compared with nearly 16% year over year the prior year
- The BLS recreation index rose 2.7% in the 12 months through August
- Older millennials have the least leisure time per day on average, at a little more than four hours
- In August 2025, hobby transactions outpaced spending by nearly a percentage point, the reverse of the latest month's pattern
- Per-person video-game spending rose 20% even for Gen Z in the 12 months to August
The Left View
CNBC presented the figures as evidence that "funflation" is rising but Americans are "splurging anyway," quoting University of Nottingham economist John Gathergood that when prices rise, consumers "might substitute between activities," with more at-home hobbies replacing holidays away and food made at home replacing eating out. The outlet cited Morningstar analyst Dan Wasiolek saying the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a shift toward "spending on experiences rather than 'things,'" even as consumer confidence and savings come under pressure, and reported that higher-income families have kept traveling; a PwC survey of more than 2,000 adults in April found they planned to spend an average of nearly $2,900 on summer travel, with 71% expecting to spend the same or more than the prior summer. On generations, CNBC relayed Bank of America's suggestion that older millennials' heavier outlays versus Gen Z's lighter ones may reflect cheaper pursuits such as arts, crafts, and board games or a turn to "granny core" activities like knitting, sewing, or baking, while even Gen Z, the group with the smallest increase, spent 20% more on video games.
The Right View
Fox Business cast the same report as the "hobby economy" in which "the cost of having fun is getting serious," highlighting Bank of America's view that people splurged on hobbies during pandemic social distancing, then moved toward pricier travel in 2022 and 2023, and last year rotated back to less expensive leisure "as after-tax wage growth slowed considerably" — a pattern the outlet noted was the reverse of August 2025, when transactions outpaced spending. The coverage stressed that older millennials spend the most and have the largest share of their cohort making hobby purchases, which the institute tied to young children and to their having the least leisure time (a little more than four hours a day per the Census Bureau's American Time Use Survey), while younger millennials and Gen Z spend less but a higher share of those cohorts still make hobby outlays, pointing to cheaper activities. Fox also reported that younger and older millennials and Gen X appear to be ramping up hobby spending as baby boomers and Gen Z slow theirs: Gen Z hobby transactions showed near-zero growth in August after nearly 16% a year earlier, driven by a drop in outdoor recreation that may follow longer-lasting buys such as hiking boots, with Gen Z concentrating remaining spend on gaming — including board games and tabletop role-playing — and using about 20% to 25% of leisure time on games or computers.
Our Take (balanced)
The left's strongest argument is that households are not retreating from leisure: spending grew faster than transactions and faster than overall retail, which CNBC and Gathergood treat as substitution toward experiences people still choose to fund, including planned summer travel that a PwC survey found most adults would not cut. The right's strongest argument is that the composition of that spending signals belt-tightening, not boom: Fox foregrounds Bank of America's claim that the rotation into cheaper hobbies followed a considerable slowdown in after-tax wage growth, plus Gen Z's collapse from nearly 16% transaction growth to near zero and a pullback in outdoor recreation. The central unresolved tension is whether "funflation" names resilient demand for fun that simply costs more, or a trade-down into lower-cost hobbies forced by fuel, fares, and weaker wage growth.
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