Is Labubu Mania On the Way Out?

July 24, 2025– A woman browses a shop selling Labubu products. Courtesy of Sandor Somkuti and Wikimedia Commons.

Labubu, the ugly-cute pseudo-rabbit plush, is no dumb bunny. Generating $4.18 billion in revenue is an easy target for Pop Mart in 2025, according to company CEO Wang Ning in an interview with Reuters on Aug. 20, and Labubu has spearheaded that trajectory.

With its flesh-toned, smiling vinyl face and faux-fur body, Labubu bears some resemblance to the classic Japanese monkey plush Monchhichi– but with a toothy, mischievous edge. Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung created the Labubu character as part of a story series titled “The Monsters,” inspired by Nordic mythology in 2015. After collaborating with the Beijing-based toy brand Pop Mart in 2019, Lung saw his creation’s popularity soar– Labubu, fully realized as a plush, has since been released in many iterations, including ones that serve as keychains that may be attached to backpacks, handbags, or even belt loops as fashion statements. In the spring of 2024, a prominent K-pop artist, BLACKPINK’s Lisa, took to Instagram to post with a Labubu of her own, setting off a global Labubu fixation. 

The element of chance is often core to the Labubu buyer experience. Each 6.69-inch “The Monsters Big Into Energy Series-Vinyl Plush Pendant Blind Box” Labubu retails for $27.99 on Pop Mart’s official website. By proceeding with the purchase, buyers agree to play a “game,” in which they have a one-in-six chance of receiving one of six virtue-themed Labubus, such as “Serenity,” or “Luck,” and a one-in-72 chance of scoring a “Secret Edition Id” Labubu. Buyers can skip the shipping time and access the outcome of the “game” immediately through a digital unboxing to experience instant gratification or disappointment. 

To secure a specific Labubu from a blind box series like “Big Into Energy,” buyers may turn to reseller sites such as eBay, where prices vary. For those who wish to skip the financial hassle altogether, blind box reveal videos on TikTok are viral in their own right. The search “#labubu” generates three million post results on the platform, while “#blindbox” surfaces 1.4 million. Popular TikTok influencers such as Brooke Monk and Katie Fang, who have amassed 41.5 million and 6.4 million followers on their main accounts, respectively, have joined in on the trend with their own unboxing videos. 

Pop Mart’s total revenue increased by 204.4% between 2024 and 2025, according to the company’s 2025 mid-year investor report. Meanwhile, revenue generated from “The Monsters” during the first half of 2025 alone – ¥4.8 billion, or almost $675 million – represented a year-on-year increase of 668.0% for the company.

In this same six-month period, Pop Mart opened nineteen new stores in the United States, increasing the number from 22 as of Dec. 31, 2024, to 41 as of June 30, 2025. Pop Mart has also announced ambitions to open theme parks.

However, numbers are no longer moving in an exclusively positive direction. Pop Mart’s stock price fell by around 20% in the last month after peaking on Aug. 26, and Wang Ning’s net worth has dropped by $6 billion since late August, according to an estimate by Forbes. The downgrade of Pop Mart’s stock to neutral by JP Morgan Chase & Co. may be a contributing factor, suggesting that investors believe that the Labubu craze is past its prime, according to the Forbes report. 

If Pop Mart continues to follow its downward trend, the question then becomes this: Who will replace Labubu? Squishmallows paved the way for the cute-and-cuddly buying frenzy amongst adults, dominating bedrooms in large quantities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jellycat, a popular contemporary, is similarly homey and remains a more understated plush option. Labubu, in contrast, functions as a proclamation of trendiness on the go and, given the financial implications of accumulating a collection coupled with its celebrity associations, serves as a status symbol.  Unlike Jellycat and Squishmallow, whose eyes are black, beady, and unassuming, their small smiles stitched in, Labubu is confrontational, its brow furrowed above large, colorful eyes, and its smile wide, in a maniacal, or perhaps determined, expression. Regardless of what is next in store for people’s stuffed animal sensibilities, Labubu has made its mark as a motif for the toy industry in 2025. The explosive success of Labubu speaks not only to the aesthetic appeal of a plush that is bold and unapologetic, fangs and all, but to people’s impulses to give in to chance in an era already marked by uncertainty, economically and politically.