LEGO achieves record revenue and profit in 2024

*Looks around at unopened Lego boxes still to build*

Yep - this story checks out.

Not a surprise to see those themes as the best sellers, as it is the AFOLs buying the bigger sets.

Business, Business, Business!

Reckon it was me buying 42175 last year that put TLG over the top.

At the expense of quality... colour missmatch, stickers in expensive sets, low quality prints (specially white on darker pieces)

It's good to know that they are taking sustainability seriously, or, appear to be. Its great they are able to do more things and bring things to a wider audience. I cant help think that prices of things now though, do not reflect the quality. A lot of sets are dull, a lot of sets have stickers. White bricks still change colour.
My demand and desire (because of cost) is waning, but it looks like plenty of others now there to pick up the slack. But, I preferred it when we were more niche as lego lovers. oh well :)

Wonderful. Now LEGO has absolutely no incentive to do better. Prices will continue to rise, and the quality will continue to plummet.

@GusG said:
"At the expense of quality... colour missmatch, stickers in expensive sets, low quality prints (specially white on darker pieces)"

And there is something going wrong with the brick quality, in the past recent years. I have several sets that show very alarming signs after a short time (sometimes just a few months or a year or two): a creaking sound when you move the sets even slightly and much worse: the clamping force is almost completely gone: certain bricks or parts of the sets sometimes fall apart with the slightest movement.

Very extreme, for example 10327 Dune Ornitopher: after 6 months, various parts fall apart even if you move the set carefully. They then no longer hold at all (cockpit parts, for example).

Older sets, some 5-10 years old, do not show these signs.

Somewhere they also save on raw materials and/or production (maybe less cooling time or something like that in the injection molding process). Don't know I am not an expert. But the overall quality of the bricks is definitely becoming worser, compared to older and even very old sets I have:

eg the 6980 Galaxy Comander from 1983 (!): the clamping force is still absolutely flawless, no color mismatches - no comparison to current bricks

Same story every year. We won't invest in finally fixing our inconsistent colours, we still give you hard to apply stickers while we could do great printed parts instead, but we're still raking in the millions, so all is good with the world.

Price go up, profit go up. At our expense, of course.

Egg on my face, that $55 Brave New World set really paid off

@Rimefang said:
"Business, Business, Business!
"

"Numbers!
(Whispers) Is this working?"

@stevild3 said:
" @Rimefang said:
"Business, Business, Business!
"

"Numbers!
(Whispers) Is this working?""

Yes.

I think my LEGO buying trend is definitely downwards over the past 10 years, both in number of sets and total cost. But of course, that is more than made up by all the new fans and the volume they are buying.

I find it crazy how many people are buying sets these days, especially at full retail price, and when they think they are getting a bargain at 10% off. Compare that to ten years ago, when most sets could be had at 33% off, and discounts of 50% were common. LEGO has clearly done an excellent job at expanding both the number of people buying LEGO and the prices they are willing to pay.

It does make me wonder how long LEGO can keep up their growth trend, or whether it will need to shift sales further from West to East, or from kids to adults. The way they have marketed to adults has obviously worked incredibly well. Being an AFOL now is different to 10 years ago, and very different to 20. Similarly the number of LEGO related events has rocketed. I just wonder how long that interest will remain, or whether it will be so oversaturated that it collapses. It wouldn't surprise me if LEGO continue to grow for the next five years, but then it wouldn't surprise me if there was a crash either.

Not surprised that profit margin is down. I’ve seen more discounting and promotions in the last 6 months than I’d seen in a while. I think they are over producing which helps revenue but discounts are taking a bigger bite to move the oversupply.

I hope these good results which include the Lego Icons theme will comfort them in their strategy of releasing at least one large LOTR set every year, and hopefully some smaller LOTR sets too.

I’m just here to enjoy the inevitable “why can’t you lower prices and stop giving me stickers” arguments from AFOL economists. Should be entertaining.

Why can’t they lower prices and stop giving me stickers?

Link:

https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2025/march/lego-group-delivers-record-results-in-2024

Full report:

https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/aboutus/assets/blt1cdf90a38318ef56/the_LEGO_Group_Annual_Report_2024.pdf

@Jackthenipper said:
"Why can’t they lower prices and stop giving me stickers?"

reading these comments in succession almost made me do a spit take

Records results... Depends on how you look at it.

Over the last four years they've generated 34% more revenue, but net profit has only gone up by 4%. That means that also LEGO is feeling the increased costs of everything, from labor to materials, to machines, energy, etc.

I only 'recently' got back into LEGO (halfway through 2023), I bought a LOT in a year of a half of collecting. Often at a (deep) discount. Many of the older sets still in the sales channel as well and these new 2025 feel very expensive. As other have said, I have a LOT of unopened sets that still need to be build. I just suspect that I'll not be purchasing that much this year beyond a few sets that are still very high on my wishlist (Lion Castle, Blacktron, etc.).

“To bring the benefits of play to children in need, in ‘24 LEGO positively impacted over 12mil. children through product donations and learning through play initiatives.
Niels B Christiansen: “Play is more important than ever, and we were happy to see the UN General Assembly adopt an International Day of Play to champion children’s right to play.
Our outstanding performance in ‘24 helped reach millions of children around the world with joyful learning-through-play experiences that help them develop the skills they will need to thrive.”

That’s what it’s all about.
Word up LEGO!

@monkyby87 said:
"I’m just here to enjoy the inevitable “why can’t you lower prices and stop giving me stickers” arguments from AFOL economists. Should be entertaining. "

It's almost as if Lego understands their business better than AFOLs on here. I accept that can't possibly be true though.

@Mister_Jonny said:
" @stevild3 said:
" @Rimefang said:
"Business, Business, Business!
"

"Numbers!
(Whispers) Is this working?""

Yes."

YYYYAAAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!

If I see high prices for a kit I want, I save for it.

I don’t try to be a completist but get sets I really want. You truly don’t need every set in the line. Buy what you’d love to build and/or display.

Look out diligently for sales on Amazon, eBay, Target, Walmart, etc.

Buy good condition used complete sets from reputable eBay’ers.

Moc and/mod kits. So much fun.

Sustainability? Please. They sell plastic for a living.
Record profits and they keep raising prices.
No wonder funwhole and pantasy are so popular.

Saturation still not reached
And I'm still able to stuff more lego in my room.

@nymnyr8694 said:
"Sustainability? Please. They sell plastic for a living.
Record profits and they keep raising prices.
No wonder funwhole and pantasy are so popular."

Spot on.

More profit means more stickers.

Lego kicks ass every which way. Can we please lower prices so I can contribute more to their growing market share? Pretty please?

@Rimefang said:
"Business, Business, Business!
"

numbers, numbers, numbers

I mean, you want a company to be profitable. If LEGO was losing money yearly, then what?

But I understand the concern/frustration of seeing profits and prices going up/remaining expensive.

It's a tough situation. I have answered by not buying as much since I just can't afford to spread my "wealth."

But profits means new themes or ideas that maybe we wouldn't see otherwise, so I welcome that. Granted a lot of the new themes/ideas I haven't been a huge fan of. It is what it is.

@CCC said:
"I think my LEGO buying trend is definitely downwards over the past 10 years, both in number of sets and total cost. But of course, that is more than made up by all the new fans and the volume they are buying.

I find it crazy how many people are buying sets these days, especially at full retail price, and when they think they are getting a bargain at 10% off. Compare that to ten years ago, when most sets could be had at 33% off, and discounts of 50% were common. LEGO has clearly done an excellent job at expanding both the number of people buying LEGO and the prices they are willing to pay.

It does make me wonder how long LEGO can keep up their growth trend, or whether it will need to shift sales further from West to East, or from kids to adults. The way they have marketed to adults has obviously worked incredibly well. Being an AFOL now is different to 10 years ago, and very different to 20. Similarly the number of LEGO related events has rocketed. I just wonder how long that interest will remain, or whether it will be so oversaturated that it collapses. It wouldn't surprise me if LEGO continue to grow for the next five years, but then it wouldn't surprise me if there was a crash either.

"

Completely agree with the last part, could've wrote it myself. I live in one of the smallest and richest countries of the world, so maybe not comparable to the rest of the world. But what I've been seeing for years over here should at least be a bit comparable to others: kids don't play with LEGO/toys like they used to, and certainly not as long/up to the same age. As soon as the telephone/Switch gets into the hands of kids (aged 8 or 9), playing with toys falters. So SOMEBODY is making up for it in revenue, and I guess it's AFOLS and grown ups. But for how long? Until they're 60? 70?

Lego Company has become too big. I am happy that competition is a real option now. The quality of bricks from CaDa, Cobi, Funwhole and others is on par with Lego and sometimes even better (especially in the prints). I hope in coming years we will see that Lego is loosing a bit of market share so that they start to be better and more innovative where it matters to the consumer: in the bricks and designs, not environmental programs and inclusivity for publicity.

@nymnyr8694 said:
"Sustainability? Please. They sell plastic for a living.
Record profits and they keep raising prices.
No wonder funwhole and pantasy are so popular."

Oh? Have they got a lot of market share?

I really appreciate you scoffing at efforts to make LEGO more environmentally sustainable. I, for one, am deeply concerned about environmental sustainability. Plastics aren't going anywhere, but by recycling and reusing materials, less plastic goes into the landfill, and more into useful and fun toys.

Seems like a reasonable thing to do, to me at least.

@nymnyr8694 said:
"Sustainability? Please. They sell plastic for a living.
(...)"
I see this argument A LOT when it comes to LEGO: "they sell something made of plastic therefore there is no way they can make any claims of sustainability."

It is a flawed argument, or, at least, one made without thinking too deeply about the subject.

Just because something is made out of plastic does not mean it is unsustainable. Plastics are amazing materials and truly one of the 'miracles' of human achievement; they deserve to be lauded and used.

What we often get wrong is HOW we use plastics. Single-use plastics are the best example of this; such items, outside of medical usage, are indeed pointless & unsustainable.

LEGO, and other brick brands, produce the opposite of that! It is literally designed to be used many, many times in many different ways. Even compared to other toys, it's a marvel; think of those huge, moulded plastic lumps that kids are given which are designed to be played with in a single way, and become useless when pieces go missing... I work in a charity shop and see such things donated every day... and see them remain unsold even after weeks because they have pieces missing. Any LEGO, even random assortment bags is bought VERY quickly.

Even without taking into account the inherent reüsability of highly sophisticated interlocking brick systems, LEGO do seem to make genuine strides each year in producing more of their products from non-oil sources.

Consider what is TRULY unsustainable: their unlimited growth is unsustainable; people driving two-tonne vehicles to the shops to buy LEGO is unsustainable; the FOMO that TLG needlessly drums up to encourage people to consume more and spend more is unsustainable... but please don't consider LEGO to be "unsustainable" in an environmental sense of the word.

@Duq said:
"Same story every year. We won't invest in finally fixing our inconsistent colours, we still give you hard to apply stickers while we could do great printed parts instead, but we're still raking in the millions, so all is good with the world."

careful, you'll get called entitled for mentioning completely valid criticisms

Good, this means they have more money to invest in prints instead of stickers, and better brick and colour quality, right?
...right?
No I'm not that naive anymore. :)

@MCNwakeboard said:
"Not surprised that profit margin is down. I’ve seen more discounting and promotions in the last 6 months than I’d seen in a while. I think they are over producing which helps revenue but discounts are taking a bigger bite to move the oversupply. "

IP cost might be eating into their profit margin too, Other toy companies have said as much recently too. The IP holders, especially Disney are taking a bit more of the pie than they should be, which is causing toy companies to adjust prices for that as well.

It's easy to grow profits when you continuously lower the quality of your products, cut corners and raise prices.

The question is: how long will they be able to maintain this? How long before the whales start realising they're being taken advantage of and getting lower quality products in return for their money and close their wallets?

No company grows forever. And when one gets as arrogant as LEGO is getting, the downfall comes quicker.

Instead of all the "sustainability" bullsh*t that no one actually cares about, I'd like to see all those "increased profits" used to also increase the quality of the products (like reduce the molde marks that keep getting more and more noticeable) and reduce the lazy way outs like stickers everywhere instead of printing bricks in +200€ sets.

Do they publish a customer satisfaction metric? It would be interesting to see metrics on support requests, returns etc. not that they would publish those.

There is something I fo not understand: how is it possible that competitors like Funwhole make sets half the price, everything printed and with a light system? And the quality is very good! They make a profit too. Where does Lego go wrong?

Yes, person reading this comment, you're absolutely right. This is proof that whatever you take issue with about modern Lego is, in fact, something they're maliciously inflicting on us specifically to make your life in particular worse. You'd better tell us all what it is.

(This sustainable comment mostly recycled from a comment I made on last year's annual results post.)

@Ephseb said:
" @Duq said:
"Same story every year. We won't invest in finally fixing our inconsistent colours, we still give you hard to apply stickers while we could do great printed parts instead, but we're still raking in the millions, so all is good with the world."

careful, you'll get called entitled for mentioning completely valid criticisms"

I don't understand that. Lego has not been adhering to its standards of quality for some time now in the way they used to, all obviously in the name of greedy profit. Yet they still charge crazy prices to us, the consumers. For those prices, we deserve better, and those that defend these practices clearly aren't in as much need of money or something if they think getting what we are due and were promised is whining.

I have no problem with sustainability, but as far as I know, the sustainable sources they're referring to are the culprit for the consistently scratched up windscreen elements across all themes.

I'm not bothered by as many things as some AFOLs, but the quality of the pieces declining feels like a genuine issue that needs to be addressed.

Biggest concern... Lego seems to like to panic when they see decreasing growth from the previous years, so them hitting a new record will mean if they don't top it next year then it's time to make cuts cuts cuts. It's more so a complaint about capitalism in general, but it's a trend we've seen with them a couple of times.

I read the numbers and they leave me just as cold as walking through the LEGO aisles in toy stores these days. My second dark ages are truly in full swing. I haven't bought a single new set in months. My basement (and attic) is full to the brim with unbuilt sets I bought over the past fifteen years since emerging from my first dark ages. I am happy that this period included what I would call the Golden Age of LEGO, about between 2010 and roughly 2017/2018, after which a lot of things went into decline quality-wise. Not in the number of gigantic AFOL-oriented sets, mind you. But quantity over quality is not my idea of a fun hobby.

I have resorted to tracking down many of the sets I missed out on as a kid, but even those I now have almost complete, so no need for any more.
Thankfully I have other hobbies that give me enjoyment too, so I don't feel any loss. Plus I still regularly visit Brickset and other LEGO related sites to keep up with what is happening in the world of bricks and figs. :-)

@AustinPowers said:
"I read the numbers and they leave me just as cold as walking through the LEGO aisles in toy stores these days. My second dark ages are truly in full swing. I haven't bought a single new set in months. My basement (and attic) is full to the brim with unbuilt sets I bought over the past fifteen years since emerging from my first dark ages. I am happy that this period included what I would call the Golden Age of LEGO, about between 2010 and roughly 2017/2018, after which a lot of things went into decline quality-wise. Not in the number of gigantic AFOL-oriented sets, mind you. But quantity over quality is not my idea of a fun hobby.

I have resorted to tracking down many of the sets I missed out on as a kid, but even those I now have almost complete, so no need for any more.
Thankfully I have other hobbies that give me enjoyment too, so I don't feel any loss. Plus I still regularly visit Brickset and other LEGO related sites to keep up with what is happening in the world of bricks and figs. :-) "

You know, I'm starting to feel the same as you... I'm trying to track down older sets which I missed or sold, because nowadays (as a Technic fan and collector) I can hardly find any novelty that I would wholeheartedly buy. I feel a huge amount of sets (and themes) lost their soul.

@xccj said:
"Biggest concern... Lego seems to like to panic when they see decreasing growth from the previous years, so them hitting a new record will mean if they don't top it next year then it's time to make cuts cuts cuts. It's more so a complaint about capitalism in general, but it's a trend we've seen with them a couple of times."

This is exactly my thought when these reports come out. It's not just Lego, it's every corporation ever. They seem to think it's a loss if they don't INCREASE their numbers from the previous year. Returning a profit, after all expenses have been payed, is not enough somehow. Eventually that mindset will lead to a catastrophic failure, because the amount of potential customers in the world is finite. Yes, a healthy business need a bit of margin, basically to survive against inflation and to be prepared to replace old equipment and facilities. But again, as long as you are making a net profit at all, you are doing that. At this point it's time to stop focusing on expanding and start worrying about keeping current customers happy.

This is code for : “Ha. We convinced a bunch of people that our ABS,etc plastic is worth its weight in gold, decreased our overall quality, jacked up our prices and they still weren’t wise enough to stop buying ….” ??

I think the bigger issue is announcing year after year of record profit after they whined about having to raise prices due to inflation all the while the CEO bragging about his love of Ferrari's and his collection.

Play is more important than ever!- as they release tons of sets that are not for play :3

@ikke said:
"There is something I fo not understand: how is it possible that competitors like Funwhole make sets half the price, everything printed and with a light system? And the quality is very good! They make a profit too. Where does Lego go wrong?"

1.They mostly dont design pieces for themselves- they use ones created by Lego, morowver they dont even PRODUCE own bricks- they use bricks from Gobricks company.
2. They have limited set range so production costs are not as big.
3.By being chinese manufacturer they can bypass MANY quality standards
4. Small marketing - it mostly sells itself by reviews.

I continue to be mystified at the degree of bitterness and negativity that the annual earnings report inevitably generates. This is a fun hobby, no one is forcing you to buy these sets, and there are plenty of less expensive non-Lego alternatives around, both legitimate and bootleg, if you want to spend less or don't want to give your money to Lego.

So what do you get out of such transparently self-serving criticisms? The quality complaints are obviously overblown and don't stand up to empirical scrutiny. If the clutch power and quality of non-Lego branded sets are superior, then why are you still buying so much Lego and still such an active participant at sites like this? If profit margins are down and increased total profit comes from getting slightly LESS profit off of each customer and instead from growing the customer base, then why accuse the company of being greedy? I understand the appeal of making bad arguments - it's easy and it's become a norm in online discussion. But what do you get out of it emotionally? Does it make you feel better? Do you think about it when you go right back to Lego.com to place your next order? Does it enhance your build experience? What's the payoff?

@tmtomh said:
"I continue to be mystified at the degree of bitterness and negativity that the annual earnings report inevitably generates. This is a fun hobby, no one is forcing you to buy these sets, and there are plenty of less expensive non-Lego alternatives around, both legitimate and bootleg, if you want to spend less or don't want to give your money to Lego.

So what do you get out of such transparently self-serving criticisms? The quality complaints are obviously overblown and don't stand up to empirical scrutiny. If the clutch power and quality of non-Lego branded sets are superior, then why are you still buying so much Lego and still such an active participant at sites like this? If profit margins are down and increased total profit comes from getting slightly LESS profit off of each customer and instead from growing the customer base, then why accuse the company of being greedy? I understand the appeal of making bad arguments - it's easy and it's become a norm in online discussion. But what do you get out of it emotionally? Does it make you feel better? Do you think about it when you go right back to Lego.com to place your next order? Does it enhance your build experience? What's the payoff?
"

The quality concerns are hardly self serving. It won’t just help me...it’ll help everyone who buys LEGO. I mentioned this elsewhere, but a quality concern I have is the new material used to make glass. I’m only slightly bothered by the color tint but dropping them on the table, they make a very different clinking sound than older bricks. How will those parts standby up long term? Does the clink mean anything that should worry us or is it just worrying about nothing? We don’t know as plant parts haven’t been in the wild very long(despite whatever shot term testing they did when creating the product).

And there’s the very noticeable(to AFOLs) color change to trans light blue tiles. As I’ve come to learn, a lot of AFOLs are very particular & meticulous about this hobby. I imagine there’s some who want to create a body of water but the two shades are bothersome to varying degrees. I don’t mind it that much as it’s water & color variation happens. And there’s the scratched windscreens.

If nobody speaks up about this, how can we expect LEGO to(hopefully) make a change to better protect said parts?

@thor96 said:
"Lego Company has become too big. I am happy that competition is a real option now. The quality of bricks from CaDa, Cobi, Funwhole and others is on par with Lego and sometimes even better (especially in the prints). I hope in coming years we will see that Lego is loosing a bit of market share so that they start to be better and more innovative where it matters to the consumer: in the bricks and designs, not environmental programs and inclusivity for publicity."

I dislike the notion that inclusivity is a waste of time or a distraction from LEGO's tasks. It's a smart marketing tactic and an educational tool to reflect the real diversity of the human population so more demographics will be attracted to the product and gain visibility in a world that has all kinds of cultures and stories and groups that are important to learn about and respect. Is it cynical to a degree? Sure. LEGO wants more customers. But it also helps provide a more rich world to build and I'll take the greater variety of LEGO people as a positive.

That being said, I'm also in the "corporate pursuit for endless growth is an inescapable dangerous nightmare" camp.