2025 Playground Trends: New Products to Make Your Community Playground Stand Out
Refreshing a playground is a fantastic way to inject fun into a neighbourhood, but you want to make sure that you’re adding new elements to the space that people are actually going to want. Playground trends for community parks in 2025 lean towards things like accessibility and interactivity, which are crucial in providing a play space that will appeal to everyone, regardless of age, capabilities, and interests.
Parks and playgrounds provide a gathering place for people, young and old, to enjoy, encouraging play, creativity, and time spent outdoors in the fresh air. Whether you’re looking to build a completely new playground or revitalize an existing one, staying on top of current trends is a fantastic way to better understand what the people in your community might be looking for.
Trend-Alert! Parkworks’ Top Five For 2025
Splash Pads
One of the most popular playground trends for 2025 is the addition of water to your park space. No one combines water and play better than Parkworks’ splashiest partner, Waterplay®. Bringing a Waterplay splash pad to your park can help provide an accessible, inclusive space that encourages multi-generational physical play and the building of social connections across all ages. Not only does this expand the overall play space for kids to enjoy, but it also benefits the entire community on those hot summer days when people look to beat the heat.
Waterplay designs and manufacturers FUN BUiLDS that are sure to wow everyone who visits. With a wide range of products to choose from, you’re bound to find the perfect splash pad features to complete your playground and splash pad area, providing an incredible play experience for everyone! Climb, spray, slide, splash, and spin on one of the Activity Towers, make friends with the free-standing Play Pals, and delight in the wide array of Ground Sprays available to complete your splash pad design!
Accessibility ensures everyone’s included!
Another prominent playground trend in 2025 is that of accessibility. And rightly so! Everyone deserves the chance to play at playgrounds, regardless of their abilities. The great news is that creating accessible, inclusive playgrounds or adding accessible products or features to existing playgrounds has never been easier. Our fantastic vendors boast wide arrays of accessible components that can be worked into playgrounds big and small. Jambette’s Wheelchair Accessible Swing allows wheelchair users to roll directly onto the swing, ensuring a safe and most importantly – fun – experience! It features a ramp that can be raised and lowered for easy access, and a support stop adds an extra level of security to help keep the wheelchair from moving once its brakes have been applied.
If you’re looking to add accessibility for even the smallest of park-goers, then KOMPAN’s Pathfinder ramp play unit is a great place to start. Aimed at toddlers, it boasts a wide variety of physical, social-emotional, and cognitive-creative play elements. With built-in ramps, the Pathfinder is fully accessible to everyone at the park. Keeping accessibility at the forefront of your mind when designing and refreshing playground spaces is an excellent way to ensure that everyone can enjoy your playground, regardless of their age or ability level.
Rope Climbing
Thrilling, exhilarating and awe-inspiring, rope-based play structures are an addition to any playground that are sure to delight the masses. With dozens of rope-climbing features to choose from, our manufacturers are sure to have the perfect FUN BUiLDs for your playground. KOMPAN’s Inclusive Twister is a thrilling universal play magnet for kids of all ages and abilities! With wide net openings and a roomy platform, it helps encourage and support cross-coordination, spatial awareness and social-emotional interactions amongst all playground-goers.
If you’re looking for a rope-climbing feature that will truly take your playground to new heights, then KOMPAN’s Tree Top Walk is a fun place to start! Awe-inspiring for children and adults alike, the wobbly-walks, climbs, and thrilling slides will keep users coming back again and again. From bottom to top, build physical and social-emotional skills while enjoying great views and playful thrills!
Playground Seating
While playgrounds typically focus on play features that excite and encourage play, we can’t forget about the other elements that make them universal for everyone to enjoy! This includes features such as shade and seating that allow parents, guardians, and caregivers to enjoy the space while still having a safe place to watch children play. Jambette’s Accessible Road Craft table is a great option that combines accessibility, creativity, and seating and is the perfect addition to any playground space.
If playgrounds can be gathering places for children to enjoy, why not expand that into the seating options as well! mmcité's Platform offers a unique, modular seating option for parks and playground spaces, encouraging people to gather around and socialize. Enjoy a picnic with the family, share a coffee with other parents and caregivers, or take advantage of a comfortable place to rest tired legs after a fun afternoon of playing and building connections.
Interactive Features
Including interactive elements in your playground is a great way to challenge kids’ creativity and get them thinking outside of the box! They help bolster cognitive thinking and processing while encouraging kids to explore and invite cooperation as they play. KOMPAN’s Play Panel 2 – Music is a great interactive feature geared towards little playground-goers and is sure to delight everyone who engages with it. With a colourful combination of rhythm, sounds and tones, kids can make music while training hand-eye coordination, as well as both logical and creative thinking.
With several different functionalities, incorporating interactive elements in your playground is a terrific way to cater to users of all ages and abilities. Jambette’s Non-Verbal Communication Boards are a fantastic addition to any playground space and are available in several different languages including French-English, French-Spanish, Spanish-English, and more! They allow all users to explore non-verbal communication in a fun environment, sparking creativity, inquisitiveness, and fun!
Keeping trends in mind when planning a new playground or revitalizing an existing space is a fantastic way to ensure that the features you’ll be installing will resonate with your community and continue to provide fun for all ages! Focusing on features that promote accessibility, and inclusivity, is crucial to ensuring your playground can be enjoyed by all for years to come.