UK adults are spending £8.9bn a year on collectibles - and LEGO is leading the charge

Britain's adult collectibles market has reached £8.9bn annually, with LEGO among the biggest drivers of that figure. Novuna Personal Finance surveyed 2,000 UK adults in October 2026 and found that more than half spend an average of £290 each year on collectibles spanning plastic bricks, retro gaming and Pokémon.

The age breakdown is where it gets interesting. Adults aged 18-24 outspend every other group on LEGO by up to £100 a year on average, and almost a third of them say they're "making up for years of limited pocket money." That tracks - if you couldn't afford sets as a kid, your first proper salary changes things. The 25-34 bracket tends to drop more in a single purchase though: their average maximum single spend sits at £864, compared to £601 for the younger group. With the 75419 Death Star sitting at £899.99, that ceiling gets reached in one transaction.

On the Christmas front, 19% of respondents said they're hoping to find LEGO under the tree this year. Half said they're planning to buy themselves childhood favourites over the holidays - LEGO is squarely in that category for a lot of people. The investment angle gets a mention too: 15% were buying collectibles with resale value in mind. That's a minority, though. My read is that most buyers are spending on things they genuinely want to own and build.

The LEGO Group has previously noted - for France and Iberia at least, as of September 2025 - that adults represent 25% of its sales but 40% of its turnover. That gap tells you something about where the bigger, pricier sets are ending up. None of this will shock anyone who frequents AFOL forums, but it's useful to see the numbers formalised. Adult LEGO buying isn't a quirky outlier hobby - it's a substantial chunk of a nearly nine-billion-pound market.

Death Star at LEGO.com: Death Star™