The Lego Group

The Lego company was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter whose primary business of producing household goods had suffered due to the Great Depression. Initially producing wooden toys, the company later developed a system of interlocking bricks. Manufacturing of plastic Lego bricks began in Denmark in 1947. After a fire in the woodworking department, Ole's son, Godtfred, decided to stop the production of wooden toys and solely focus on plastic products and the Lego system. In 1961, Christiansen built the beginning of Billund Airport to facilitate the sale of Lego toys around the world.

In North America, Samsonite managed the Lego brand from 1961 until 1972 (United States) and 1986 (Canada).

The name Lego is a contraction of the Danish words "Leg godt" (English: "Play well"). However, the name also means in Latin either "I collect", "I compose", "I choose", or "I read". These additional meanings, the first three of which are very relevant, only made sense when the company started making plastic blocks with studs (Lego blocks) that could be put together.

In 1995, the company's ruling Kristiansen/Christiansen family began running the Lego Group through the Kirkbi investment firm.

The basic Lego brick has remained unchanged since its patent, and this enduring design has been associated with the toy's widespread popularity. These bricks have become a recognizable part of childhood in many parts of the world. The Lego Group, which has remained family-owned by the Christiansen family, was among the first inductees to the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame in 1998. Additionally, it was recognized as "Toy of the Century" by several organizations in 2000. Lego bricks have been utilized in various creative projects, including large-scale replicas of famous monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and Mount Rushmore, as well as modern art installations.

In the 21st century, the Lego brand expanded into various electronic games, including a series of Minifigure-based action-adventure games inspired by popular cultural franchises such as Star Wars, Batman, Marvel Comics, and the Harry Potter series. The brand also released The Lego Movie (2014), a computer-animated feature film centered on the adventures of Lego minifigures. A spin-off, The Lego Batman Movie (2017), focused on Batman, introduced in the original film.

In May 2025, the company moved its North American headquarters to Boston.

In January 2026, the Lego Group announced the Smart Play system at CES, introducing Smart Bricks, Smart Tags, and Smart Minifigures with embedded electronics designed to enable interactive play without screens. The system uses near-field magnetic positioning and a Bluetooth-based protocol called BrickNet to allow components to recognize and interact with each other.

Retail stores

The Lego Group operates 211 Lego Brand stores in North America and Europe (13 in Canada, 121 in the United States, 2 in Austria, 2 in Belgium, 1 in Czech Republic, 4 in Denmark, 9 in France, 18 in Germany, 2 in Ireland, 4 in the Netherlands, 8 in Poland, 1 in Spain, 1 in Sweden, 1 in Switzerland, 24 in the United Kingdom). The Lego Group also franchised its store brand known as "Certified Stores", to third-party vendors such as the Majid Al Futtaim Group, which opened 6 stores in 2015 (4 in the United Arab Emirates, and 2 in Kuwait). As of 2023, there is a total of 424 stores operated by franchisees, mostly in Australia, Asia, and South America.

The Lego Group offers free "Lego Passports" at its stores, which contain blank pages to fill with rubber stamped designs that are available at different Lego retail locations. Each store has its own custom stamp.

Europe

In October 2002, the Lego Group introduced a significant change in its direct retail policy with the opening of the first so-called "Lego Brand Store" in Cologne, Germany. The second, in Milton Keynes, UK, followed quickly – several dozen more opened worldwide over the next few years, and most of the existing stores have been remodelled on the new "Brand Store" template. One of the distinctive features of these new stores is the inclusion of a "Pick-A-Brick" system that allows customers to buy individual bricks in bulk quantities. The opening of most of these stores, including the 2003 opening of one in the Birmingham Bull Ring shopping centre in England, have been marked by the production of a new, special, limited edition, commemorative Lego Duplo piece.

Lego opened the first brand store in its home country, Denmark, in Copenhagen on 13 December 2010. In 2016, three certified stores opened in Italy: one in Milan, one in the Orio Center, a shopping mall near the Milan Bergamo Airport in Bergamo, and another in Verona. On 18 August 2022, Ireland's first Lego store was opened in Dublin on Grafton Street. On 2 December 2022, an official store was opened in Brescia, bringing the total number of Lego stores in Italy to 29. In 2025, there were a total of 77 stores in Europe, which are operated by Lego itself. In London at Leicester Square, there is the former largest Lego store in the world, with an area of 805 m2. The first Lego store is expected to open doors in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 19 December 2023 in the largest shopping centre in the city's Paradise Center. On 4 July 2026, Kazakhstan's first official Lego Certified Store opened in Almaty at the MEGA Alma-Ata shopping mall.