Unlike many of its competitors, The LEGO Group managed to gain market share in what was an otherwise pretty grim year for the toy industry. 

The Danish brickmaker generated US$9.66 billion in revenue in 2023—an increase of 2% compared to its 2022 results (US$9.47 billion). In the annual financial report it released yesterday, CEO Niels Christiansen attributes the company’s positive performance to an aggressive launch strategy for building sets. LEGO currently has 780 SKUs in the market, and 47% of them rolled out last year. Top-performing brands in 2023 included LEGO City and LEGO Technic, with Star Wars and Harry Potter doing the best among the company’s licensed lines. 

This is the third consecutive year that LEGO has reported annual growth, and it’s looking to maintain this momentum by continuing to expand its retail footprint, global supply chain and digital strategy. To that end, the company opened 147 dedicated LEGO stores in 2023, bringing the total to 1,031 worldwide. LEGO is also looking to expand its manufacturing capacity to meet global demand for its products by building two new factories in the US and Vietnam. 

LEGO got back into the video game market last year through a partnership with North Carolina-based developer Epic Games to launch LEGO Fortnite (pictured). This latest addition to Fortnite reached more than 2.4 million concurrent players during its launch weekend in December, and briefly overtook the platform’s Battle Royale mode as the most popular experience in the game. Epic will continue to add new features and content to the branded experience in future updates, including letting players craft new bases and weapons.