World's Most Powerful 100 Brands 2026 · Second Global Mega Edition
#2 LEGO
LEGO is ranked #2 in the WCRC World's Most Powerful 100 Brands 2026, with a WCRC Power Score of 86.04. It earns the highest consumer trust result of any brand in the edition, backed by a play system nobody has copied and record growth in a flat toy market.
Five WCRC pillars, 50 parameters, each scored 0 to 100 against global sector peers. The pillar weights set how much each one counts toward the Power Score.
Brand Positioning & Recall28%90.8
Consumer Trust & Sentiment26%88.9
Product, Innovation & Delivery20%86.8
Sustainability, Governance & ESG16%73.0
Digital Presence & Financial Soundness10%84.6
P1 · Brand Positioning & Recall 90.8 · weight 28%
Positioning Clarity & Coherence95
Unaided Brand Recall92
Top-of-Mind Awareness (TOMA)88
Brand Differentiation Index95
Campaign Effectiveness & Recall85
Brand Personality Coherence95
Share of Voice vs Share of Market85
Cultural & Contextual Relevance90
Brand Extension Credibility88
Visual Identity Distinctiveness95
How the Power Score adds up
Each pillar's score multiplied by its WCRC weight. The segments sum to 86.04.
LEGO's power rests on trust. It scores 88.9 on Consumer Trust & Sentiment, the highest Pillar 2 result in the WCRC World's Most Powerful 100 Brands 2026, and 90.8 on Brand Positioning & Recall. Parents buy it for children, adults buy it for themselves, and both expect the same thing: bricks that fit together perfectly, decades apart. That promise has turned a Danish toy maker into the world's largest toy company, a position it has held since 2015.
The second driver is growth that the rest of the industry cannot match. Revenue rose 12% to DKK83.5bn in 2025, operating profit reached DKK22.0bn and net profit DKK16.7bn, while consumer sales grew 16% in a flat toy market. The first half of 2026 was stronger still, with revenue up 21% to DKK41.9bn. LEGO scores 86.8 on Product, Innovation & Delivery: it unveiled SMART Play, a screen-free system of electronic bricks, tags and minifigures, at CES in January 2026, launched it with Star Wars, and keeps adding licences from Pokemon to Formula 1.
Third, LEGO owns its route to the customer. It runs 1,106 branded stores, a large direct online business and, since February 2026, 29 LEGO and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres bought from Merlin for DKK1.9bn. New factories in Vietnam and the United States bring supply closer to demand. The weak spot is Sustainability, Governance & ESG at 73.0. The company has struggled to find a replacement for ABS plastic, and reports in 2024 about the owning family's private jets undercut its green message. Even so, LEGO scores above 84 on the other four WCRC pillars, a breadth of strength few brands in the edition can match.
Why LEGO ranks #2
LEGO's strongest results sit in trust and distinctiveness: people trust the brand more than its rivals, and its system of play has no real substitute.
2.01Composite Consumer Trust Score97
Composite Consumer Trust Score: LEGO is the top-scoring brand in the edition on this parameter. Its 25% ownership by the LEGO Foundation, which funds learning through play, gives parents a reason to trust it beyond the product.
2.10Competitive Trust Differential96
Competitive Trust Differential: LEGO's trust lead over other toy and consumer brands shows in sales. Consumer sales grew 16% in 2025 and 22% in the first half of 2026 while the wider toy market was flat.
1.04Brand Differentiation Index95
Brand Differentiation Index: the interlocking brick is a system, not a single product. Sets from different decades and themes still fit together, which no competitor has matched at scale.
The Achilles' heel
4.02Sustainability Communication Authenticity60
Sustainability Communication Authenticity scores 60, LEGO's lowest parameter. The company has struggled to replace oil-based ABS plastic, and Danish broadcaster DR reported in 2024 that the owning family's private jets flew more than 1,000 times between 2020 and 2023.
What would move it: Publishing a dated, measurable roadmap for sustainable materials and reporting progress against it each year would close the gap between LEGO's green message and its record.
The 2026 story
LEGO entered 2026 on the back of a record year. Revenue rose 12% to DKK83.5bn in 2025 and net profit climbed 21% to DKK16.7bn, with growth across every major region.
The momentum carried on. In January the company unveiled LEGO SMART Play at CES, adding sensors and sound to bricks and minifigures without a screen. In February it bought 29 LEGO and LEGOLAND Discovery Centres from Merlin for DKK1.9bn, and first-half revenue rose 21% to DKK41.9bn.
The risks are about materials and credibility rather than demand. LEGO still relies on ABS plastic, and its sustainability message has drawn criticism. With private ownership by KIRKBI and the LEGO Foundation, it faces no market pressure to rush, but it does face rising expectations from parents.
Five-year comparison
Official figures as reported, DKK m. LEGO Group consolidated revenue and operating profit, calendar years, from the LEGO Group's official five-year financial highlights.
+51%Revenue, FY2021 to FY2025
10.9%Annual growth
26.4%Operating margin, FY2025
-4.4 ptsMargin change
Bars: revenue · line: operating margin
Year
Revenue
Operating income
Margin
FY2021
55,294
17,044
30.8%
FY2022
64,647
17,921
27.7%
FY2023
65,914
17,108
26.0%
FY2024
74,325
18,741
25.2%
FY2025
83,530
22,034
26.4%
WCRC analysis
Revenue grew from DKK55.3bn to DKK83.5bn between 2021 and 2025, a rise of 51%. Only 2023 was close to flat, at 2%, and growth then returned at 13% and 12%. Operating margin eased from 31% in 2021 to 25% in 2024 as LEGO spent on factories, stores and digital, then recovered to 26% in 2025.
The table shows a brand that grows through the cycle rather than with it. LEGO added more than DKK28bn of annual revenue in four years while keeping operating margins above 25%, rare for a toy maker. That steady demand is the financial side of the trust that drives its WCRC result.
Yes. LEGO is the highest-ranked toy brand in the WCRC World's Most Powerful 100 Brands 2026, at #2 overall with a WCRC Power Score of 86.04.
What rank is LEGO in the WCRC World's Most Powerful 100 Brands 2026?
LEGO is ranked #2 of 100 in the Second Global Mega Edition, behind Apple, with a WCRC Power Score of 86.04.
What is LEGO's biggest strength?
Trust. LEGO's highest WCRC parameters are Composite Consumer Trust Score, Competitive Trust Differential and Brand Differentiation Index, and its Consumer Trust & Sentiment pillar score of 88.9 is the highest in the edition.
What is LEGO's weakest area?
Sustainability Communication Authenticity, at 60. LEGO has struggled to replace ABS plastic, and reports about the owning family's private jets weakened its green message.
Who owns and leads LEGO?
The LEGO Group is privately owned: KIRKBI A/S, the Kirk Kristiansen family's holding company, holds 75% and the LEGO Foundation 25%. Niels B. Christiansen is chief executive.
About this assessment
The WCRC Power Score is WCRC's own assessment under the WCRC Brand Value Research Methodology (2026 Edition): 50 parameters across five weighted pillars, each scored 0 to 100 against global sector peers. Read the methodology.
