In 2025, a wave of excitement surrounding Labubu — a collectible toy — swept across social media screens in all corners of the world. As Pop Mart’s most profitable intellectual property (IP) to date, many are wondering: What is Labubu? Why is it everywhere now? And why is this monster plushie so famous in particular?
Labubu’s explosive popularity didn’t come out of nowhere, it is the result of clever celebrity backing, alluring blind boxes and scalper resales. But without additional content and emotional depth to build consumer loyalty, Labubu may struggle to hold onto consumers once the hype fades.
Labubu was created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung as a children’s picture book character and acquired by Pop Mart in 2019. Unlike the soft, cute faces of most popular plushie IPs at the time, Labubu’s slightly rebellious fangs reflect young people’s desire for distinctive self-expression.
However, Labubu did not become an overnight sensation upon its market debut. The craze actually began as early as 2024, when Blackpink member Lalisa Manobal (Lisa) appeared at Vanity Fair holding a Labubu doll. Soon after, Rihanna, Dua Lipa and David Beckham’s daughter were seen accessorizing their luxury handbags with Labubu charms.
The benefits of celebrity endorsements prompted Pop Mart to recognize Labubu’s immense business opportunity. So, as more and more ads on social media platforms proliferated, influencers rushed to share their Labubu items. Videos of consumers fighting over Labubus further reinforced its popularity.
According to Pop Mart’s 2024 financial report, overseas and regional business — including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan — generated 5.065 billion yuan(over $700 million), marking a 375.2% year-over-year increase.
Another key factor behind Labubu’s success is Pop Mart’s “blind box” sales mechanism, a prime example of intermittent reinforcement in marketing where the specific item style is kept secret until it is purchased. American psychologist B.F. Skinner’s experiment, centered around intermittent reinforcement, showed that tester rats pressed a lever more when rewards came unpredictably. This shows how uncertainty itself is addictive. In the case of the blind boxes, they offer an occasional payoff instead of giving buyers a satisfying product every time. Consumers choose to keep buying because they think they might get the Labubu they want in their next blind box purchase.
Speculation also boosts the trend. Scalpers’ behavior of purchasing boxes and inflating prices for resale caused Labubu prices to surge rapidly in the market. By turning popularity into priciness, Labubu has the illusion of high value and is seen as an investment that can appreciate in value.
This raises a key question: can Labubu’s limited edition varieties truly position it within the realm of luxury goods? Historically, as civilizations like the Mayans, Aztecs, Mesopotamians and early Chinese societies emerged, luxury became materialized. Expressed through gold, jewels, silk and art, these items weren’t just indulgences. They symbolized power, status and even belief in the afterlife. Luxury goods became more than just something expensive, but something rare, masterfully crafted and symbolically powerful.
While marketed as limited edition, most of Pop Mart’s figures — including Labubu — are produced on assembly lines. Unlike traditional luxury items, there’s no heritage craftsmanship and no scarcity of materials.
Despite the blind box frenzy and consumer illusions, the hype will die down. The decline in Labubu’s popularity is inevitable because it lacks content-driven elements that sustain a long-term IP. For example, Disney also has many popular IPs, but plush toys are only a small part of its sales strategy. Instead, they maintain consumer loyalty through continuously updated animations, movies and theme park attractions.
While most Pop Mart figurines are mass-produced and marketed as affordable collections, some are suggesting that Labubu is starting to teeter between being a toy and being a luxury item. In a striking case, a Beijing auction house sold a human-sized Labubu figure for 1.08 million yuan (over 150,000 dollars) setting a record for the blind box toy.
Pop Mart faces a contradiction. It must quickly release new limited figures to keep up with the buzz and preserve the illusion of exclusivity. But when everything is limited, nothing truly is.
Labubu’s current popularity is real, but likely fleeting. Without deeper, meaningful content or craftsmanship, it may soon become wildly popular for a season, before being quietly forgotten.
Lynn Lin is an Opinion Intern for the Summer 2025. She can be reached at baoyinl1@uci.edu.
Edited by Isabella Ehring and Joshua Gonzales