Best Baby Play Gyms

The Lovevery play gym is pricey—but its variety, aesthetics, materials, and wide age range make it worth the money. Both Gideon’s and my babies loved this activity center; my baby stayed engaged with it for record time, and my husband and I were sad when it was time to pack it up and send it back to Consumer Reports headquarters. 

Tall, smooth wooden arches give the play gym a stylish look. The pentagonal mat has a speckled white and beige center with five colorful fold-out flaps; it’s the rare aesthetic combination that appeals to both adults and children. Each flap offers a different way to engage: one has little pillows with different noisemakers inside, while another has strips of fabric in varied textures.

What parents liked: While it’s plenty of fun, the Lovevery play gym isn’t overstimulating—for parents or for babies. There are no electronic speakers playing obnoxious music, and the loudest noisemaker, a wooden clapper with a bell at its center, is easily removable (and it wasn’t even my baby’s favorite). 

“This play gym surprised me in how well it kept him comfortable, entertained, and calm,” Gideon says. Most of the toys on this play gym are built into the mat itself rather than hanging from its arches, a thoughtful feature that encourages babies to play on their tummy rather than staying on their backs. (Tummy time play is important for early development, according to experts.)

What babies liked: “The hanging wooden noisemaker was probably his favorite to reach for and grab, letting it swing, and then grabbing it again (and again and again),” Gideon says. “And the crunchy noisemaking flap got him kicking and smiling.” (More on those below.) 

Colorful cards with babies’ faces can be tucked into the top of the wooden arch or slid into two slots alongside a mirror. No other gym came with images of other kids, and my son loved these so much he would screech and babble with joy. I need to find more images of babies for him to play with now that we don’t have the Lovevery babies for him to talk to.

Useful to know: This gym is easy to clean. I quickly wiped away any drool or spit up without trouble, and Gideon had no trouble throwing the mat into the washer (though it must be hung up to dry). Because the arches from which the toys hang are tall and very solid, this mat isn’t super-portable, and I struggled a bit to carry it down the hall from one room to another—the arches kept bumping into the wall.

Pros

• Engaging and attractive design.
• Unique built-in developmental play options.
• Sturdy construction.
• No loud noises.
• Encourages tummy time play.
• Easy to clean.

Cons

• Wooden frame is bulky, heavy, and not very portable.
• One of the most expensive activity mats we tested.

Infantino calls this activity gym a “4-in-1,” but the only thing it offers beyond other play gyms is that it becomes a ball pit. The three other modes merely refer to the positions in which the child can play in the gym—sitting, lying on their back, or lying on their tummy, which can also be said of all the other activity gyms we tested. 

What parents liked: This activity mat comes with an assortment of colorful balls for the ball pit, which, of course, were a hit. We got this mat at just the right stage for my baby; he’s really into throwing things at the moment (though this is not so fun during dinnertime). My kiddo wasn’t a big fan of the other ball pit play gym we tested (the Bright 5-in-1 Ball Play gym), so I was surprised to see how much he loved this one. It has mesh siding that can be upright or folded flat, and I kept it folded, which my son found much more delightful—he loved tossing the balls against the wall. 

What babies liked: A large fabric sloth stretches between the play mat’s soft, bendable arches, which Gideon’s kiddo appreciated in particular. “That giant sloth body and accompanying face really grabbed his attention, probably because of its giant and friendly eyes,” Gideon says. “On his tummy, he stared at it the entire time and easily played with a handful of balls I left in his reach.” 

The dangling toys are fun, and include a colorful bird with plastic rings, a squeaky hanging sloth, and a big mirror, among others. My baby loved batting at them while sitting or lying on his back. He also loved grabbing the flexible arches and pulling them down with vigor, which Gideon’s baby loved as well: “He quickly grabbed the sloth with one arm and one of the two opposite hanging toys (namely the yellow teething band) and pulled them both close to his chest, the whole play gym adapting to his pulling and moving with him,” Gideon says.

Useful to know: Because of all the balls, this thing isn’t the easiest to move from room to room. It’s light and flexible, though, so balls aside, it’s otherwise easy for me to take it from his bedroom to our office down the hall. I was able to wipe away any drool or spit-up, but the mat isn’t machine-washable. 

Pros

• The friendly sloth is pretty cute—and babies seem to love it.
• The ball pit is a big hit.
• Designed to engage babies through a range of developmental stages, from tummy time to sitting play.
• Five colorful dangling toys with a variety of squeaky, rattle-y features.
• Includes a built-in storage compartment for ball pit balls.

Cons

• Not the most portable, thanks to all the plastic balls.
• Not machine-washable.

This baby play gym is a classic for a reason. The small mat features a play piano at one end and has a single arch with four dangling toys and a mirror. Sounds simple—and it is—but the piano itself is somehow intoxicating for babies. I had this parked in the living room, and I could make and eat my breakfast in peace each morning while my son babbled and swatted at the dangling toys and smacked or kicked at the piano keys.

What parents liked: Like many of the play gyms on this list, the Kick & Play Piano Gym is supposed to grow with your child. Newborns can lie safely on the flat mat and gaze up at the toys above them; as they get older, babies can kick the piano and bat the toys; when they’re safely sitting independently, the piano can turn 45 degrees so the child can hit the keys from a sitting position; and finally, the piano can be disconnected from the mat entirely, along with the dangling toys, and used on its own. 

The piano itself is well designed. It plays several catchy (and now iconic) animal-themed songs, among other sounds, at a bearable volume. Its keys depress when the baby kicks or hits them, like a real piano, and it rotates easily so the keys can face forward for kicking, or toward the ceiling for hitting. The mat’s setup, in general, is super-easy—plus it came with batteries preinstalled, a rare but major bonus. And the piano has a handle, so your toddler can easily carry it.

What babies liked: “On his back, he was immediately engaged, almost instantly kicking up a storm and laughing,” Gideon says. “He seemed to very quickly realize to some extent that his kicks were behind the noises and that prompted him to keep kicking.” However, he became overwhelmed and overstimulated after about 10 minutes, and while my son didn’t—he rarely got bored of this mat, or seemed to get overstimulated by it—it’s something to keep in mind if your baby is younger or prone to sensory overload.

Useful to know: The mat is machine-washable and easy to wipe clean with a sponge and some counter spray. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing play gym of the bunch, but the bright colors of the toys and mat, and the high-contrast black and white stripes of the toy arch, are fun for babies.

Pros

• Budget-friendly.
• Well designed with lots of play features.
• Piano is a big hit with babies—and comes with batteries included.
• Machine-washable.

Cons

• Design isn’t exactly minimalist.
• The songs will be permanently lodged in your head.
• Younger babies may be easily overstimulated by the electronic sounds.

Another piano! All of us liked both piano play gyms, but the Baby Einstein play gym differs from the Fisher-Price activity center in fundamental ways. The Kick & Play plays animal-themed music, while the Baby Einstein—also animal-themed—teaches colors, shapes, and numbers in multiple languages (English, Spanish, German, and French) when its keys are pressed. The keys don’t push down when touched, however, so the piano offers less in the way of sensory feedback than the Kick & Play. And the arches on the Baby Einstein were too short for my son, who was 9 months old and 66th percentile in length at the time of testing. For this reason, my baby tested this play gym in seated mode, without the toy arch.

A few other beefs with Baby Einstein play gym: The animals on the piano keys are stickers, rather than being printed onto the plastic directly, and feel as if they’d begin to peel very quickly after frequently coming into contact with damp, sticky little hands. And while the piano can turn to be used in a sitting position, it must be manually unscrewed from its support legs first, which is a bit laborious. 

What babies liked: Both babies liked this play gym, at least for a little while. “He lasted about 15 minutes before getting irritated in this one,” Gideon says. “But during those 15 minutes, he was kicking the keyboard excitedly. As soon as he understood what was going on, he got to kicking.”

Useful to know: This mat is machine-washable for easy clean-up. It takes three AA batteries that aren’t included in the box, so you’ll want to make sure you have those on hand before setting this up. 

Pros

• Budget-friendly.
• Play piano makes sounds and speaks in foreign languages. 
• Colorful and appealing.

Cons

• Our babies were quickly overstimulated by this play gym’s sounds and options.
• Repositioning the piano is a bit labor-intensive.
• Some design elements may not stand up to repeated use.

This convertible ball pit was a bit more difficult to set up than other play gyms we tried. It took me nearly 20 minutes to set up, and eventually I called in my husband to help. It requires three AA batteries, which isn’t evident anywhere on the Bright packaging that I could find, though it is on the product website. You need tools, which aren’t provided, to place the batteries in the electronic toy (a musical elephant).

We focused on evaluating this play gym in ball pit form. Two arches, which cross at the center, can be installed over the ball pit, with toys dangling from each arch. A play net with two holes, a bit like a basketball hoop, stretches between one section of the arches.

What babies liked: Gideon’s baby was stoked about this play gym: he loved the musical elephant toy and the colorful balls, and the tummy time pillow that comes with the mat supported him perfectly. Gideon, meanwhile, appreciated that the ball pit kept the baby safely contained. 

My baby, however, was a little less enthusiastic. He was not engaged with the hanging toys, and the balls did nothing for him, at least when the play gym was in ball pit form; we saw more success when I lowered the ball pit walls flat, so he could (attempt to) throw the balls across his room. But if your baby is on the younger side, and short fabric walls are enough to keep them contained and safe, this ball pit might be a good option for you.

Useful to know: Bright Starts calls this play gym “5-in-1,” but that’s stretching it a bit. All four walls can be lowered, which makes the mat fairly large—27 inches by 28 inches—or you can lower just two of them, making this mat tunnel-shaped. You can remove the arches or leave them on the mat while flattened, which the manufacturer considers to be two formats. The ball pit can have the toy arches installed, or you can take them down, which, again, Bright Starts considers two formats.

Still, it’s impressive and unique that this mat can be stretched out or turned into a ball pit, so if your baby or toddler doesn’t like the ball pit much (as mine didn’t), you still have the mat itself to act as a playspace. 

Aesthetically, neither Gideon nor I was much into the flat, stock image-like animals printed on the mat. This mat is machine-washable (air dry), and can be pretty easily wiped clean if necessary.

Pros

• Lights, sounds, and music were highly engaging—for some babies.
• Multiple configurations for different kinds of play.
• Converts to a ball pit and includes 40 colorful balls.

Cons

• A bit tricky to set up.
• Not the cutest.

This mat is very cute and minimalist, with a single wooden bar from which the toys hang and a muted color scheme with gentle green toy rings, a greige mat, and toys in subdued shades of red, green, and cream. Three toys hang from the toy bar, three toys attach to the bar’s support legs, and one lies loose on the mat. There’s also a leaf that extends outward from the mat.

Cute though it may be, we had some struggles with this one. The batteries for the musical sloth toy were difficult to install, and I was unable to perfectly snap the battery compartment closed, so the battery pack jutted out of the back of the sloth. It was also difficult to activate the musical component because the sloth needs to be smacked pretty hard to play. And at 9 months old at the time of testing, my baby was too tall to sit on the mat with the play bar installed. Gideon experienced issues setting up this play gym because of mismatched grooves and unclear directions.

But the babies liked it well enough. My kiddo enjoyed this play gym while lying under the toy bar. He batted at the toys hanging above—with the exception of the musical sloth, which, despite his general appreciation for both music and stuffed animals, he tended to ignore—and attempted to eat the crunchy leaf that affixes to one of the toy bar legs. His favorite activity, however, was lifting the toy bar by the legs and slamming it down onto the ground. While amusing for him, this was grating for me after a while.

Gideon’s baby also ignored the musical sloth, and like mine, he preferred playing on this mat on his back. “Broadly speaking, I consider this gym a very calm mat relative to the options we were testing,” Gideon says. The manufacturer specifies that the mat should be hand-washed; I was able to wipe spit-up off it without any trouble.

Pros

• Sweet, calming, minimalist design.
• Engaging playthings and musical elements. 

Cons

• One of the more expensive activity mats we tested.
• A bit tricky to set up.
• Better for back-lying play than for sitting play, which may limit its age span.
• Hand-wash only.

Another supercute play mat, the Skip Hop Activity Gym is bean-shaped, with varying types of fabric in different sections for softness and sensory play. It features a tummy time pillow, a mirror on a soft triangular support with a sleeve for cards or photos on the other side, a rubber triangle thing, and three toys that hang from the wooden toy arches.

Despite its aesthetic appeal, neither baby was much into this play gym. “The rubber duck was wasted on him, and other elements weren’t pronounced enough to really matter to him,” Gideon says. “This one can definitely stay out all the time with no problem. It looks very nice in most settings. But that muted appearance comes at a cost, in our experience—he wasn’t that thrilled about it.”

The mat is machine-washable and can be tumble-dried on low.

Pros

• Cute design that’s living-room-friendly.
• Multiple options for sensory play.
• Encourages tummy time.

Cons

• Design and color scheme are more attractive to adults than to babies.

This beautiful padded cotton mat, created in collaboration with the artist Kelli Murray, did not work for our babies. “As soon as he settled in and looked around himself to see the animals—mostly hanging though he caught the ground ones from the corner of his eye—he seemed to get frightened and nearly cried,” Gideon says. Mine also got scared and cried immediately upon being placed on the mat, and subsequent attempts, while not eliciting fear, did not elicit engagement or joy, either. The three hanging animal toys are very simple and don’t do anything except rattle, and a mirror in the mat itself is hidden beneath a fabric flap; while this seems interesting in theory, neither baby knew or seemed interested in discovering what secrets dwelled within the mat.

To its credit, this mat is extremely easy to set up, and can be thrown in the washer on a gentle cycle. It’s lovely to look at (if you’re an adult), with muted colors, lots of white, and animals that look as if they stepped out of someone’s watercolor book. 

Pros

• Beautiful design.

Cons

• One of the more expensive play gyms we tested.
• Design and color scheme are more attractive to adults than to babies.