In a cosy cafe in Kingston upon Thames on the outskirts of London, nine people gather in the early evening to drink and talk. To the casual observer it may look like a book club, but when the friends reach into their bags it's not paperbacks they produce – but packs of Lego.
Geoff Lay, who organised the gathering, worked in software development before recently starting Noble Brick, a Lego-focused events organisation. “I was one of those kids where you couldn't go into my bedroom because the floor was covered in pieces,” he says. But after a break with the hobby, the 44-year-old rediscovered Lego 10 years ago – after being given a set recreating London's Tower Bridge. He has been building ever since.
Surge in sales
The allure of a Lego set may conjure childhood fun, but a growing number of adult enthusiasts is one of the reasons behind a surge in sales which has helped increase the Danish toymaker's revenues by 21%. Thanks to collaborations with the likes of the World Cup and Stranger Things, as well as mini figures of popular football players, more and more are finding themselves returning to the brand in later life.
The Lego Group was founded in 1932 and has built a lucrative plastic empire, generating £4.8bn in revenue in the first half of 2026 alone. Since the 1990s, Lego has expanded its products to include brand tie-ins, video games, television shows and sets tailored towards adults – often costing hundreds of pounds.
Changing demographics
Lay is confident that a new demographic of older Lego enthusiasts is here to stay. He says: “The idea that Lego is for kids is banished.” His 40-year-old fiancee, Lauren Marshall, agrees: “You don't have a typical Lego fan any more.” Marshall “didn't have Lego as a child”, but got into the hobby as an adult after her partner's fervour rubbed off on her. As she assembles the legs of a large Darth Vader, she says sets are “a lot like jigsaws”, and they are “completing something like a puzzle”.
Someone who was raised on a less structured style of Lego play is 28-year-old Loretta Piare. “Growing up, I loved Lego. We always had huge boxes of it,” she says, as she constructs a cactus from the company's botanical series. “We could never afford one of the fancy sets. My mum would get the big boxes of mixed colours.” She stopped playing with Lego in her teens – “I used to love building houses and making it up” – but the cost-effective and environmentally conscious option to borrow other people's bricks at adult groups has revived her interest. “I love following instructions,” she says, “I love colourful bricks, basically. I love building things.”
Community and creativity
Tim Stone, a 35-year-old decorator, renewed his love for Lego after quitting smoking during Covid and buying himself a racing car set. While constructing a brick-based Nintendo Game Boy console, he explains how he joined the London Afol (Adult Fans of Lego) group to make new friends. “I got really bored. I had a load of buddies that would just go out drinking.” Now, Stone takes part in collaborative builds late into the night with more than 20 other Afol members.
There are dozens of Lego fan groups across the UK. Jordan Wiltshire, 32, is a member of GertLUG, a “Lego user group” based in Bristol. He became conscious of the cost and began to wonder if Lego was a “sensible” purchase. When a friend bought him a Lego Star Wars Tie Fighter for Christmas when he was 26, things slotted back into place. He calls Lego his “personality”, and is a strong advocate against ageism related to the hobby. “Why can't we play with Lego?” he asks. “Some people might say it's for kids but there are so many of us and we all have different things we love about it.” Wiltshire, who builds his own Lego creations, says he enjoys the “sense of accomplishment”: “It's a way I can be creative and actually be quite good at it.”
There are other purported benefits to playing with Lego, such as improved mental health. Nick Bright runs Brighton Bricks, an adult Lego group that meets monthly, and says: “It's therapy by stealth, you don't even realise you're helping your wellbeing.” Like many adult fans, the 51-year-old rediscovered Lego later in life. He recalls the product that revived the habit: “It was the Haunted House Monster Fighters set. It was one of those moments where you go 'Yeah, this is me'.” He shares his love for Lego with his nine-year-old son and 80-year-old mother. His home collection is large and admits “my wife maybe thinks I have too much”.
Future of the hobby
There are plenty of gateways into the hobby through collaborations with the likes of Disney, Dune and Fortnite, but Bright warns that one downside is that “there are a lot more bigger, expensive sets and there is a fear of missing out”. Bright prefers to follow the guide of a Lego set's printed instructions, but has many friends whose constructions come from their own imagination. “We're all doing the same thing, but we are all doing it differently,” he says. “What I love about Lego is that there's no wrong way to build it.” He believes the creativity displayed through MOCs – an enthusiast term meaning “my own creation” to describe original builds – shows that Lego is much more than a children's toy. “It's just like how someone can do knitting and pottery – it's an art form.”
Regardless of people's reasons to love Lego, its adult fanbase shows the company won't be hitting a brick wall any time soon.
