17+ LEGO Facts to Take You Back to Your Childhood in 2023

LEGO is not just a toy to play with. It embodies nostalgia, childhood carelessness, love, happiness, and laughter.

If you need proof to understand the major role it plays in a child’s life, just know that every year, enough LEGO bricks get sold to wrap the Earth around 18 times!

So there must be lots of awesome LEGO facts we should cover, right?

Let’s get straight to it!

Interlocking and Fun Facts About LEGOs (Editor’s Choice):

• LEGO bricks were named toy of the century twice.
• Children play with LEGOs for around five billion hours every year.
• The LEGOs inventor, Ole Kirk Christiansen, founded the company in 1932 in Denmark.
• There are over four billion LEGO minifigures.
• There are over 400 billion LEGO bricks.
• Over 318,000,000 LEGO plastic tires are produced each year.
• 4,000,000 LEGO pieces are sold each hour.
• LEGO sells over 600,000 sets every day.
• The Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon is both the biggest and most expensive commercial LEGO set.
• There are over 915,000,000 ways to combine six eight-stud LEGO bricks.

LEGO Information

LEGOs have been loved by children and adults from all over the world for close to a century now. Chances are you’ve played with them multiple times but even if you haven’t (How? More importantly—Why?), you at least know what they are. 

As of 2021, LEGO is the largest toy company in the world! So we are starting with the basics—there are bound to be some cool facts about LEGOs you still haven’t heard about.

1. LEGOs are building bricks primarily made for children.

(Source: LEGO) 

What are LEGOs? Initially named “Automatic Binding Bricks,” these plastic bricks are toys primarily targeted towards children. However, they are now among the most popular toys in the world for children and adults alike.

2. The LEGO Group initially created various wooden toys.

(Source: LEGO)  

LEGO’s inventor, Ole Kirk Christiansen, was a master carpenter and first started his legacy by making wooden toys. Ole’s son, Godtfred, also took up wooden toy design at an early age.

The plastic bricks, which we now associate LEGO with, didn’t exist yet. So then, when were LEGOs invented?

3. Automatic Binding Bricks didn’t see the light of day before 1949.

(Source: LEGO) 

As LEGO history facts show, Ole Kirk Christiansen saw great potential in plastic bricks. In 1946, he got the company its first plastic injection molding machine. 

The LEGO bricks we now know and love started existing in this name in 1953. Up until then, they were known as Automatic Binding Bricks.

4. There are more than 400 billion LEGO bricks.

(Source: Brick Fans) 

You now know how they came to be, but do you also know how many LEGOs are there in the world?

This number is subject to constant change, of course, but at this moment in time, there are over 400 billion LEGO bricks on Earth!

If we were to stack them all together, they would reach a height of 2,386,065 miles—that’s 10 times more than the distance to the Moon!

5. There are four billion LEGO minifigures.

(Source: National Geographic Kids) 

Although they started as “mere plastic bricks,” LEGOs took all shapes and sizes as time went by. They now even have so-called “minifigures.”

They include human and animal figures, which can’t be built but rather used with whatever you’re building. LEGO facts suggest they’re one of the most popular types of LEGOs. No wonder!

6. Every year, children around the world spend five billion hours playing with LEGOs.

(Source: Bricks Fans) 

This makes perfect sense. Considering the gigantic amount of options, combinations, and games, playing with them just can’t get boring.

You can create one thing, then take it apart and build something else entirely at any time you feel like it. Pretty simple and pretty fitting for children, if you ask us.

7. The LEGO Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon is the biggest and most expensive commercial LEGO set.

(Source: Interesting Engineering) 

LEGO Star Wars sets have been around for over 20 years. So this LEGOs info on the biggest and most expensive commercially available set being the 7,541-piece Millennium Falcon isn’t all that hard to believe. 

You can get a chance to build the fan-favorite spacecraft for “only” $800. Though, it’s not available on the official LEGO website anymore and could be even more expensive now.

8. There are over 915,000,000 ways to combine six eight-stud LEGOs.

(Source: KidsKonnect) 

LEGO facts prove time and time again that they are incredibly versatile. They just go really well together however you unite them.

If you take six eight-stud LEGOs, there are approximately 915,000,000 ways to combine them.

In comparison, there are just 24 ways when there are only two of them. Add just another one, though, and you’re suddenly looking at 1,060 combinations!

9. “The LEGO Movie” features over 15,000,000 pieces.

(Source: Business Insider)  

Do you know how many LEGOs were used in The Lego Movie? Exactly 15,080,330 of them! Though, to be honest, these were virtual bricks from the program LEGO Digital Designer. 

3,863,484 were unique, with the production notes revealing most of them were reused. As far as minifigures go, there were 183 different ones. 

LEGO Company History

LEGO has been a household name for quite some time now. The plastic bricks have found their way into millions of homes all over the world not just because of their simplicity, but all their history and things they embody as well. 

10. Ole Kirk Christiansen is the father of LEGO.

(Source: Brick Fans) 

Where does LEGO come from exactly? The LEGO Group was born in a small town in Denmark named Billund. 

As you already know, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a skilled Danish carpenter, founded the company in 1932. He was the tenth child of a poor family, with a story quite a sight to behold.

11. LEGO’s name translates to “play well.”

(Source: LEGO) 

Christiansen derived his company name from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means “play well.” It was officially used in 1936.

“Lego” is also Latin for “I put together”—something LEGO’s founder was unaware of at the time!

12. LEGO minifigures were introduced in 1978.

(Source: LEGO) 

How old are these specific LEGOs? Much older than one would think, it turns out.

In 1978, Kjeld Kirk Christiansen, Ole’s grandson, developed the “System within the System” program—one that aimed to deliver the right product to the right children's age.

During the same year, minifigures were released. It wasn’t until 1989, though, that they got different facial expressions, with the LEGO Pirates being the first to have such features.

13. LEGOs were named toy of the century at least two times.

(Source: Brick Fans) 

The fact that not an entire century has even passed since their inception hasn’t stopped them from winning many notable prizes. It’s LEGO history facts like that that are immortalizing these playing bricks.

Not to mention they’ve managed to beat extremely tough competition, especially back in 2000. The Barbie doll and Teddy bear were just a few of the nominees.

14. Some LEGO sets are a subject of serious controversies.

(Source: Ranker) 

Take “Mr. Bunny,” for example. It was created back in 2003, though it looks much, much older. That’s what Ranker criticized it for, at least. It’s also a good example of how weird LEGO pieces can get. 

Another one can be the 2014 LEGO Valentine set. It brought forth some pretty interesting pieces, however, the end result was everything but pretty.

LEGO Franchise

The LEGO Group wouldn’t have survived for so long if it weren’t for its sound financial and production decisions. It’s on the constant lookout for ways to improve and its results reflect its practices.

Given how this is the world’s biggest toymaker, calling this franchise merely successful would be an understatement.

15. As of February 2022, LEGO’s net worth is $40 billion.

(Source: Wealthy Persons) 

Now you know how much LEGO is worth in 2022!

Most of this comes from the sale of various LEGO items, though Legoland amusement parks still contribute much, too. 

The company’s operating income was estimated at $10.8 billion in 2020.

16. LEGO sells more than 600,000 sets per day.

(Source: Brick Fans) 

This translates to seven sets per second! So, if you were to ask us how many LEGO sets there are, you shouldn’t be surprised when we say that nobody knows for sure.

The estimated number of different sets is nearing 20,000 as we speak, but again… no way to know this as numbers change by the minute.

17. Nearly 28 LEGO sets are sold every second around Christmas.

(Source: National Geographic Kids) 

Let this serve as a reminder that they are the perfect present for Christmas and New Year’s.

It’s at this time that their appeal grows even larger and the demand soars equally as higher. Almost 28 sets are sold per second—four times as many as during the rest of the year!

18. Around 4,000,000 LEGO bricks are sold worldwide every hour.

(Source: Facts.net) 

The next question is going to shed light to even more fascinating and unbelievable LEGO trivia. 

So how many LEGOs are sold each year? Around four million! They are so popular that this number almost exceeds the one for bricks created per hour—4,680,000!

Don’t worry, LEGOs are not going to run out. The company invests huge amounts of money each year to make sure its production doesn’t face any unwanted issues. 

19. LEGO produces around 318,000,000 plastic tires a year.

(Source: Interesting Engineering) 

Did you know that each year LEGO ends up making more tires than Goodyear? 

Okay, so how many tires does LEGO make a year? 870,000 every day! You do the math… The number becomes even more impressive, considering that’s just a small part of everything LEGO creates.

20. Towards the end of 2021, the LEGO market was more lucrative than many common ones.

(Source: The Guardian) 

Which would you say is more tempting—stocks, bonds, art, wine, stamps, or LEGOs? We bet you wouldn’t choose the latter.

Well, believe it or not, studies and facts about LEGOs suggest it’s currently the most lucrative one than all of these. It has a huge secondary market filled with hardcore and/or nostalgic fans.

Wrap Up

Brick by brick, fact by fact, we’ve finally come to an end.

We hope that these LEGO facts managed to remind you just how big of an influence LEGOs have on the world. Neither time, nor current events could dethrone them and cancel their domination. 

90 years on, they have the exact same form, yet are as popular as ever. All this makes us want to go and snag a new set.

Care to join us?