The numbers are in. LEGO's 2025 full-year results dropped yesterday and they are staggering.
Revenue: DKK 83.5 billion. That is approximately $13 billion USD. Up 12% year over year.
Net profit: DKK 16.7 billion. Approximately $2.6 billion. Up 21%.
Operating profit: DKK 22 billion. Up 18%.
Consumer sales grew 16%. The overall toy market grew 7%. LEGO grew at more than double the rate of the industry it dominates.
This is the most profitable year in the company's 93-year history.
Putting It in Context
Hasbro posted approximately $4.7 billion in 2025 revenue. Net loss of $322 million after goodwill impairments.
Mattel posted approximately $5.35 billion. Net profit around $398 million.
LEGO's revenue is larger than Hasbro and Mattel combined. Its net profit is larger than Mattel's revenue from its entire Hot Wheels brand. This is a privately held, family-owned company in Denmark that makes plastic bricks. And it prints more profit than every public toy company on the planet.
Funko reports Q4 earnings tomorrow. Their trailing twelve-month revenue is around $929 million. LEGO makes that in roughly three weeks.
What Drove It
The top five bestselling themes in 2025: LEGO City, LEGO Star Wars, LEGO Technic, LEGO Icons, and LEGO Botanicals.
Botanicals cracking the top five is the story within the story. Harry Potter had held a top-five spot for years. Botanicals splitting off from Icons into its own theme and immediately entering the rankings tells you exactly how powerful the adult collector market has become. Roughly 25 to 30 percent of global toy sales are now adults buying for themselves.
LEGO launched 868 SKUs in 2025. Approximately half were new products. That churn rate is what keeps the aftermarket alive. More SKUs means more retirements means more collectible value on the secondary market.
The F1 partnership launched its first products with activations at over 20 Grand Prix events. An F1 Academy partnership was announced for 2026. LEGO continues to aggressively expand its licensed portfolio.
The Margin Recovery
Net margin had been declining every year from 24% in 2021 to 18.6% in 2024. Four straight years of erosion while the company invested heavily in new factories, sustainability, and digital.
In 2025, it reversed. Net margin bounced back to 20%. Operating margin hit 26.4%, up from 25.2%. LEGO grew revenue 12%, invested DKK 9.2 billion in capital expenditure, and still improved profitability. That is operationally exceptional.
The Strategic Moves
LEGO completed the acquisition of 29 Discovery Centres and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres from Merlin Entertainments in February 2026 for approximately $269 million. Those locations attract 5 million visitors per year. LEGO now controls its own retail entertainment pipeline.
The SMART Play system launched in March with connected Star Wars sets. CEO Niels B. Christiansen has called it the company's biggest product innovation. The first wave of 43 new sets dropped March 1, including Zelda, Lord of the Rings Sauron Helmet, and Project Hail Mary.
LEGO Fortnite Odyssey surpassed 1 billion player hours. Digital is not a sideshow anymore.
Sustainability jumped from 33% renewable and recycled content in bricks to 52% in a single year. Employee count grew 8% to 33,801. The company now operates 1,112 branded stores worldwide.
Tariff Resilience
With tariff volatility dominating headlines in early 2026, Christiansen's production strategy is relevant. LEGO manufactures across six global factories: Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, China, Vietnam (new), and a Virginia facility under construction.
"We produce close to markets and consumers," Christiansen told AFP. That geographic diversification protects LEGO where competitors concentrated in Chinese manufacturing are exposed.
What This Means for Collectors
868 SKUs with roughly 50% turnover each year means hundreds of sets retiring annually. Every retirement creates a secondary market opportunity.
LEGO modular buildings have averaged approximately 17% annualized growth after retirement. The LEGO Pokemon collaboration sold out instantly and immediately hit premiums on the secondary market. The Botanicals line is creating an entirely new collector category.
LEGO's dominance is self-reinforcing. More revenue means more investment in licensed themes. More licensed themes means more limited runs. More limited runs means more collectible value after retirement. The flywheel keeps spinning.
The Outlook
LEGO expects "high single-digit" revenue growth in 2026 with net profit at approximately 2025 levels. Conservative guidance from a company that has beaten expectations consistently.
The toy industry is flat. LEGO keeps taking share. The gap between LEGO and everyone else is not closing. It is widening. And the collectibles aftermarket rides that wave higher every year.
