LEGO Super Mario and Animal Crossing expected to slow down in 2026

With neither LEGO Super Mario or Animal Crossing said to have a January 2026 wave, next year is expected to be a slow 12 months for both themes.

LEGO Super Mario and Animal Crossing will be slowing down in 2026, according to the latest rumours reported by reliable Instagram user, lego_minecraft_goat, on their Instagram Stories.

LEGO Super Mario has had 15 sets released so far this year, with one more rumoured to be on the way, as well as a GWP and an Insiders reward. LEGO Animal Crossing doesn’t have much speed to slow down by, with only six sets and one GWP expected to release in 2025.

2026 won’t be the end of either theme though, according to the rumours, with lego_minecraft_goat reporting that both will get sets later in the year. It’s worth noting that the original LEGO Super Mario starter sets will retire at the end of 2026, so the reduction in releases could coincide with attempts to fully retire the interactive collection of sets. However, retirement dates (especially ones so far in the future) have been known to shift around in the past.

Every single LEGO Super Mario set was originally scheduled to retire by summer 2024, with the theme expected to vanish from shelves altogether by the beginning of 2025. This year’s six Mario Kart sets were also shuffled around before they even launched, with the full line-up of racing models originally due to retire within 12 months of their release, but will now be disappearing by July 31, 2026.

It’s worth noting that the original LEGO Super Mario starter courses were eventually replaced with three new interactive sets in 2024, as a way of both refreshing the core line and potentially introducing new fans to the brick-built Nintendo video game theme.

This information is only rumoured for now, so we won’t know for sure what the future of either theme is until we get official confirmation from the LEGO Group. For now, take these early reports with the usual pinch of salt.

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