LEGO Fortnite has the chance to take the best of LEGO Dimensions for itself

LEGO Fortnite is rumoured to be getting physical sets, paving the way for it to learn a few things from a theme from almost a decade ago.

Thanks to Instagram user maxbautde, we've had rumours flying that the LEGO Group's partnership with Epic Games won't just result in the digital world of LEGO Fortnite, but also actual brick-built sets. A full wave of five sets is believed to be on the way, although with some conflicting reports of exactly what these could be – and of course no official confirmation until we see something from the LEGO Group themselves.

Nonetheless, with how well the launch of LEGO Fortnite has gone, at least one wave of sets would certainly make sense. There are plenty of Fortnite-specific locations and characters to depict but the possibility of physical LEGO Fortnite sets also raises the question of whether we could see other licensed minifigure designs translated into the real world.

After all, it's not the first time that a video game has paved the way for such characters to appear as minifigures. Back in 2015, LEGO Dimensions made its debut as a LEGO-themed crossover video game, developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Players had physical minifigures and a toy pad that allowed them to play through levels, using each character's unique skills to solve puzzles and earn Collectibles.

This offered the chance to get your hands on minifigures from franchises LEGO collectors would never usually have access to, with LEGO Dimensions expanding to cover more than 30 franchises in its two years; worth of packs and add-ons. That included DC Comics (a chronically underserved theme in the LEGO system currently), The Simpsons, Doctor Who, Portal, The Goonies, The Powerpuff Girls, and Beetlejuice. That names just a few of the areas that would likely never get their own specific theme – but for which minifigure versions are very welcome.

The same could easily be expanded upon within a possible LEGO Fortnite theme, with literally hundreds of skins based on franchises or even real people that the LEGO Group hasn't touched to work with. Tomb Raider, Wreck-It Ralph, The Walking Dead, and Rick and Morty are just a few possibilities.

Of course, these would all still need to be areas that fit with the LEGO Group's own branding; the last two on that list might be a little too mature for the company's policies. Even still, the possibilities are there for characters from such franchises to appear in sets as minifigures, or perhaps even in a LEGO Collectible Minifigure series centred on Fortnite characters.

Indeed LEGO Fortnite as a theme is on track to have even more success than LEGO Dimensions. Where LEGO Dimensions ran out of steam after a couple of years, LEGO Fortnite already has an existing dedicated audience. Fortnite has stayed consistently strong since its launch six years again, with 236 million out of its 500 million registered players still active every month.

On top of that, LEGO Fortnite specifically is still holding steady as the second-most-played map ever, beaten only by Battle Royale. Even several months after its release, LEGO Fortnite is still playing host to tens of thousands of players at any given moment – 47,859 at the time of writing, to be exact.

This established player base could mean that the rumoured LEGO Fortnite sets will endure where LEGO Dimensions didn't. The same foundations are shared between LEGO Fortnite and LEGO Dimensions. This time, however, instead of needing to launch both a video game and a range of sets, the LEGO Group only has to focus on delivering on the sets, with a ready-made world of gaming and potential characters just waiting to be tapped into on Epic Games' side of the deal.

Every LEGO Fortnite set rumoured for 2024

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