Which Products Drive Revenue in Children's Coding Education

Product and demand insights from Algorithmics, the international school of programming for children aged 6–18, drawn from real enrollment across a network of 515 partner schools in 90+ countries.

If you run — or are thinking about opening — a children's coding school, one question sits above the rest: which courses will actually fill your classrooms and pay your bills? Not which ones sound exciting on a website, but which ones parents sign up for, come back for, and stay with for years.

These are the patterns we see across the Algorithmics network during the 2025/26 school year. They are useful whether you are planning a course lineup, deciding what to open with, or sizing up the sector as a franchise investment.

Where these insights come from

Algorithmics is an international school of programming for children aged 6 to 18, with 515 partner schools and more than 2 million graduates across 90+ countries. The patterns below reflect real demand across that network during the 2025/26 school year — what families chose, at what age, in which markets, and when.

The products that fill a classroom

Four courses account for close to 70% of everything families enroll their children in. If you are deciding where to focus, this is it.

Python Start (23% of enrollment, ages 12–13) is the single best-selling course in the network. This is the age where coding stops feeling like a toy and starts feeling like a skill with a future attached — and it is the age where parents start paying for that future.

Visual Programming / Scratch (21%, ages 9–10) is the entry point for most children and the top-of-funnel product for any school. Block-based coding lets kids build real games and animations before they can type quickly, so it fills the largest number of beginner seats.

Game Design (18%, ages 10–11) turns the thing every child already loves — playing games — into making them. Roblox and Lua give fast, visible results, which is what keeps demand strong and word of mouth working.

Artificial Intelligence (7%, ages 12–15) is the newest of the four and the growth story of the year.

Together these four give a new school a proven core: a beginner magnet (Scratch), a crowd-pleaser (Game Design), a serious flagship (Python), and a fast-rising draw (AI).

The courses we keep small — and why

Some courses — video content creation, graphic design, and a few others — draw only a small slice of enrollment. That is a choice, not a weakness, and it matters for anyone planning a school's economics.

Algorithmics concentrates its catalog on programming and AI for three reasons that translate directly into revenue:

• Programming and AI carry the career story parents pay for. A parent enrolling a child in Python or AI is buying a future skill, not a hobby. That willingness to pay is what supports steady tuition and renewals year after year.
• They form an unbroken multi-year ladder. From first logic at age 6 to shipping real software at 18, the core courses connect into a path a child can climb for a decade. Creative one-off courses don't build that retention — the programming ladder does.
• A focused lineup is easier to launch and sell. A new partner can open, staff, and market a tight core of proven courses far more easily than a sprawling catalog. The smaller courses work well as seasonal add-ons and camps, but they are not what a school is built on.

The takeaway for an operator: lead with programming and AI, and treat creative courses as complements — not as the foundation.

AI is the fastest-growing product

Artificial Intelligence enrollment grew roughly 4.5x in a single year — faster than any other course. It teaches children 12–15 to work with generative networks, prompt engineering, and to build their own projects across text, image, audio, video, and code.

For an operator, the signal is clear: demand for AI literacy is now real at the school-age level, not just in adult upskilling, and a school that offers it has a product parents are actively looking for right now.

Your entry product depends on your market

The same brand sells a different mix of courses depending on where it operates. If you are opening in a specific market, this shapes what you should lead with.

In the Middle East and North Africa, demand leans toward serious programming at the top of the ladder. Morocco is a clear example — Python is close to half of everything sold there, with families steering children into real programming earlier. Egypt sits at the other end: it is one of the youngest markets in the network, where demand concentrates in the youngest courses like Scratch and Digital Literacy. Two neighboring markets, two very different opening products.

In Latin America — one of the network's largest and most active regions — Game Design is the most popular course, with Python and Scratch close behind. Game Design works as a strong on-ramp here: it brings children in early and moves them up into serious programming, and demand runs right across the full ladder.

In Europe, demand is the most balanced of any region — Python, Game Design, and Scratch each take roughly a fifth of enrollment. A European school has the freedom to open broad rather than betting on a single anchor.

The rule of thumb: younger markets open on Scratch and Digital Literacy; older, more programming-focused markets lead with Python or AI.

Two selling seasons, not one

Enrollment follows a clear rhythm, and knowing it is half of planning a school's year.

The main intake is September and October, when families sign up for the school year — this is the busiest stretch by far. A second, smaller wave comes in February, largely from students moving up to their next course after finishing a first block.

Then there is summer. During the school year, camps and intensives are uncommon — but in summer they become the primary format, a distinct second selling season built on short holiday programs and, increasingly, AI intensives. For an operator, summer is not a gap to survive; it is a season to sell into with a different product.

How the classes are run

The model is consistent across all 90+ countries and easy to staff. Each course runs for 36 lessons, one lesson a week, in small groups of 4 to 15 children, with a hands-on project built in every session. During the school year, learning is almost entirely group-based; short intensives and camps step in as the main format over summer.

What this means if you're weighing an education franchise

• Demand is broad, not niche. It spans a 12-year age range and every inhabited continent, spreading risk across ages and geographies rather than one segment.
• A handful of courses do most of the work. Python, Scratch, Game Design, and AI are proven anchors; a new location does not need the full catalog to open.
• There is a natural upgrade path. Because children move up roughly one course a year, a family that starts at 7 can stay for a decade — which is what makes the retained-student economics work.
• The entry point depends on the market. A younger market may open on Scratch and Digital Literacy; an older, more ambitious one may lead with Python or AI.

Frequently asked questions

Insights reflect demand across the Algorithmics network during the 2025/26 school year. Course age ranges are from the official Algorithmics programming curriculum.