LEGO Systems Inc. Continues to Grow in the United States

[Hapori Tohu]

LEGO Systems Inc, the U.S. branch of the LEGO Group, has announced their year-end highlights for 2015, and they're looking very favorable. Sales were 11% higher than in 2014, making this the eleventh consecutive year of growth for LEGO in the United States, based on third-party data collected by NPD Retail Tracking Service. The top five themes of the year in the U.S. included LEGO Star Wars, LEGO City, LEGO Friends, LEGO Super Heroes, and LEGO Minecraft. Follow the link above for the complete press release!

 

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[Ta-metru_defender]

Not surprised to see Star Wars up there, but it's interesting to see that Bionicle isn't one of the top five. The times are changing, I suppose.

[Aanchir]

Not surprised to see Star Wars up there, but it's interesting to see that Bionicle isn't one of the top five. The times are changing, I suppose.

Interesting, but not all that surprising. Not to discredit Bionicle's success in the early years, but back when Bionicle was the LEGO Group's top theme (around 2002 to 2005), it was partly that way because they had so few other successful themes. Nowadays they're putting out hit after hit. So it's tough for a theme in a niche category like constraction to stand out like it did back when most of the LEGO Group's core products were failing.

 

What really surprises me (but probably shouldn't) is that Minecraft made the top five for the United States. I knew its sales were crazy good, but the fact that it surpassed Ninjago when Ninjago had such a huge and impressive showing that year caught me off guard. I mean, with Minecraft we're talking a theme that had about ten sets on shelves at maximum, and only four of those were new for 2015. So clearly LEGO hit upon something big there.

Edited February 11, 2016 by Aanchir

[fishers64]

What really surprises me (but probably shouldn't) is that Minecraft made the top five for the United States. I knew its sales were crazy good, but the fact that it surpassed Ninjago when Ninjago had such a huge and impressive showing that year caught me off guard. I mean, with Minecraft we're talking a theme that had about ten sets on shelves at maximum, and only four of those were new for 2015. So clearly LEGO hit upon something big there.

Yes, I was surprised to see this too. 

 

Although Minecraft is still hugely popular for some reason (Twitch profits?) and the connection with Lego is obvious...and Ninjago strikes me as a theme that is on its way out, so I guess it shouldn't be.  

[Xboxtravis]

What Lego hit on the head with Minecraft is the fact little kids are junkies for that game. I play Minecraft; but I don't worship it like children do. All my cousins love watching goofy Minecraft videos on YouTube. They love running around in circles on the game. This love of Minecraft is the reason Lego can just stack a few simple 2x2 bricks on top of each other and sell it to kids... Kids are Minecraft junkies; enough said. I loathe the sets Lego has made for Minecraft, but kids aren't complaining. 

 

Glad that Friends sales are among the top five. My little sister never got into Lego as a kid because the products Lego had back in the early 2000's didn't really appeal to girls that much. Now I have a lot of younger cousins who enjoy playing with Friends just as much as their brothers enjoy playing with Star Wars. It was a successful move on Lego's part. 

 

Star Wars and Superheros; very obvious out on top. Last year was the year of Episode VII and Age of Ultron; of course the merchandise associated with those films were going to sell well!

 

While I wish Bionicle was in the top 5; I still think it is doing strong (although not as strong as it was back in the glory days of 2002). Bionicle sets sold out in some local stores in my area (although surprisingly a lot of Tahu Master of Fire and Lord of Skull Spider sets are still hanging around). But I don't think Bionicle will ever get back to its 2002 levels of fandom; unless Lego does a big screen version of it someday.

 

The real surprise is that Ninjago is not on the list... 

Edited February 11, 2016 by Xboxtravis

[Aanchir]

Although Minecraft is still hugely popular for some reason (Twitch profits?) and the connection with Lego is obvious...and Ninjago strikes me as a theme that is on its way out, so I guess it shouldn't be.

If you think Ninjago is on its way out then you haven't been paying very good attention. Ninjago just continues to grow and grow. In 2015, overall search interest in LEGO Ninjago was stronger than for LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars combined. Reportedly, the LEGO Ninjago stage show at LEGOLAND Malaysia is the single most popular attraction there. The TV show has concluded its sixth season in some countries and is preparing for a seventh. And that's before the feature-length theatrical movie coming out in 2017. Ninjago has even expanded its audience recently with its first TFOL/AFOL-oriented Direct to Consumer set (a set that one AFOL site declared, based on a popular vote, the best product of 2015) and two upcoming Juniors sets which expand the theme's audience to include kids as young as four years old.

 

Even setting aside all that, we've already had it confirmed as of last year (in both the employee magazine and a LEGO press release) that Ninjago is now considered "an evergreen product on par with LEGO City" and that plans for it extend at least ten years. Hard to look at that and still call it a theme that's on its way out!

Edited February 12, 2016 by Aanchir