Sales of cassette tapes have been increasing over the last few years, but does that really mean the era of the Walkman is set to make a return?

When you crunch the numbers, you might be surprised. Looking at figures from Forbes, cassette sales grew 74% in 2016 and another 35% in 2017. Last year, they were up an astounding 125%, says BPI. Which may look like a trend, but hold on.

Of the 50,000 units that moved last year, three artists made up 1/3 of those sales: The 1975, Kylie Minogue, and Prodigy. Perhaps calling tapes a dead format is too harsh, but it seems like they’ll remain a novelty or something for collectors to keep.