In the space of two years, a small plush monster with pointed ears and a jagged grin went from a niche collectible to one of the most visible accessories in the world. Labubu has hung from handbags carried by pop stars, sold for six figures at auction, prompted store closures over crowd safety, and turned its maker, Chinese company Pop Mart, into one of the fastest-growing consumer businesses on the planet. Then, in 2026, demand began to cool.
This explainer traces how Labubu was created, how it crossed over into fashion, what it did for Pop Mart’s business, and where things stand now.
Labubu at a glance: the timeline
- 2015: Figurines from Kasing Lung’s The Monsters series, including Labubu, are introduced by the company How2Work.
- 2019: Pop Mart begins working with Lung and starts selling Labubu, mainly in sealed blind boxes.
- October 2023: Pop Mart releases its first Labubu key-ring line, Exciting Macaron, turning the character into a portable plush.
- April 2024: Blackpink’s Lisa is seen with a Labubu keychain, sparking a craze in Thailand and across Southeast Asia.
- May 2025: Pop Mart pauses Labubu sales in its UK stores after reports of customers fighting over stock.
- June 2025: A 1.2-metre mint-green Labubu sells for about $170,000 at the first official Labubu auction in Beijing.
- July 2025: Pop Mart sues 7-Eleven in California over counterfeit Labubus.
- November 2025: Sony Pictures acquires the rights to develop a Labubu film.
- March 2026: Pop Mart reports 2025 revenue of 37.12 billion yuan, up 184.7%. Its shares fall about 30% on concerns about its reliance on Labubu.
- August 2026: First-half revenue grows 24%, well below expectations, and overseas sales fall 11%.
- September 2026: Pop Mart opens its first European flagship, on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.
- October 2026: Pop Mart says third-quarter revenue fell 45% to 50% year on year.
Where Labubu came from
Labubu was created by Kasing Lung, an artist born in Hong Kong in 1972 and raised in the Netherlands. According to Wikipedia’s account of the character, Lung designed Labubu as part of his illustrated story series The Monsters, drawing on the Nordic folklore and mythology he loved as a child. In the stories, Labubu is a mischievous but kind-hearted elf-like creature, recognisable by its tall ears and a toothy grin that typically shows nine teeth.
The characters first became collectible figures in 2015, through a company called How2Work. The turning point came in 2019, when Lung began working with Pop Mart, a Beijing-based company founded by Wang Ning that had built its business on “designer toys” sold in blind boxes. In a blind box, the buyer does not know which figure from a series is inside until the box is opened, and some designs are deliberately rare. The format encourages repeat purchases and makes rare figures valuable on the resale market.
For several years, Labubu was one of many characters in Pop Mart’s catalogue. What changed its trajectory was a shift in format. In October 2023, Pop Mart released Exciting Macaron, a series of Labubu plush toys attached to key rings. A figure designed to sit on a shelf could now be clipped to a bag.
The Lisa moment
In April 2024, Lisa of Blackpink was seen with a Labubu keychain. The effect in Thailand, her home country, was immediate, and the craze spread across East and Southeast Asia, according to Wikipedia. In Thailand, Labubu imagery even appeared on Buddhist amulets and in tattoos, reportedly because some people believed the character brought good fortune.
Hypebeast, which named Labubu its product of 2025, credited Lisa’s endorsement with taking the character global. By the middle of 2024, Pop Mart’s interim report showed the Labubu line had generated about 6.3 billion yuan in the first half of the year.
2025: the global frenzy
In 2025, Labubu became a worldwide phenomenon. CBS News reported in June 2025 that Rihanna, Dua Lipa and Lisa had all been seen with the charms, and that rare designs were selling for more than $1,000 on resale platforms such as StockX. The outlet also reported that collectors were warning one another about thefts, with charms being snatched from handbags.
Demand created real-world problems. In May 2025, Pop Mart paused Labubu sales in its UK stores until June following reports of customers fighting over stock, although online sales continued.
Prices on the secondary market rose sharply. General releases retailed for about $20 to $30, according to Hypebeast, but rare pieces sold for many times that. In June 2025, a 1.2-metre mint-green Labubu sold for about $170,000 at the first official Labubu auction in Beijing. Hypebeast also reported that a set of 48 Labubus sold at auction for about $520,000, and that a pair of Vans x Labubu sneakers, originally priced at $85, resold on eBay for $10,585.
Popularity brought counterfeits. Fakes, widely known as “Lafufu,” were sold in large numbers. Wikipedia notes that counterfeits often have invalid QR codes, lack Pop Mart branding, or have more than nine teeth. In July 2025, Pop Mart sued 7-Eleven in California over counterfeit Labubus.
Pop Mart’s founder became one of the biggest winners. As of July 7, 2025, Wang Ning’s stake in the company was valued at $21.1 billion, according to Wikipedia.
Why fashion paid attention
Labubu’s crossover into fashion rested on the bag charm. Clipped to handbags, including luxury ones, the plush became a way to personalise a bag and signal membership of a trend, at a fraction of the price of the bag itself. CBS News described the charms as a trending fashion accessory, and Hypebeast reported that the character had become widely used in exactly that way.
Fashion and lifestyle brands moved to collaborate. Hypebeast lists tie-ins with Uniqlo, Coca-Cola, Vans, the anime series One Piece, and sacai with the K-pop group Seventeen. Lung also worked with French luxury trunk maker Moynat on a passport holder. A Coca-Cola-themed winter blind box series of Labubus was released in late 2024, and a series reimagining The Monsters as One Piece characters followed in early 2025.
The mechanics behind Labubu’s success are familiar from streetwear and luxury: limited supply, rare variants, celebrity visibility and an active resale market. The blind box adds an element of chance that encourages repeat buying. Those same mechanics would later shape the slowdown.
The numbers: Pop Mart’s record 2025
Pop Mart’s full-year 2025 results, published in March 2026, showed the scale of the boom. Revenue rose 184.7% to 37.12 billion yuan, or about $5.4 billion, and net profit rose 293.3% to 13.01 billion yuan, according to China Daily. Gross margin improved to 72.1% from 66.8%.
The Monsters franchise, led by Labubu, generated 14.16 billion yuan, up 365.7%, or about 38% of total revenue. Plush toys as a category brought in 18.71 billion yuan, more than half of all sales.
The growth was strongest outside China. Overseas revenue rose 291.9% to 16.27 billion yuan. Revenue in the Americas rose 748.4% to 6.81 billion yuan, accounting for 18.3% of total sales, and sales in Europe and other regions grew more than fivefold. Revenue in China rose 134.7% to 20.85 billion yuan.
Despite the record results, Pop Mart’s shares fell about 30% after the announcement. Investors were concerned about how much of the company’s growth depended on a single character, as reported by the South China Morning Post. Management set a target of at least 20% revenue growth for 2026.
Building a global retail network
Pop Mart used the boom to expand its physical stores abroad. It had 72 stores in the United States at the time of its 2025 results and planned to exceed 100 during 2026, according to China Daily. Inside Retail Asia reported that the company had secured flagship sites on Fifth Avenue and in Times Square in New York.
In Europe, Pop Mart opened its first flagship on September 12, 2026, at 51-53 Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, opposite Galeries Lafayette. The three-storey store covers about 800 square metres and is the company’s eleventh in France, according to French outlet Nomade Urbain.
2026: the craze cools
By mid-2026, the picture had changed. Pop Mart’s revenue for the first half of the year rose 24% to 17.2 billion yuan, against analyst expectations of around 20 billion yuan, and net income of 5.04 billion yuan fell short of forecasts, according to Bloomberg, as reported by The Edge Malaysia. Overseas sales fell 11% year on year, while revenue in Greater China rose 47%.
The Monsters franchise recorded its first revenue decline on record in the first half of 2026, falling 7.5% to 4.45 billion yuan, and its share of total sales dropped to 26% from 34.7% a year earlier, according to Inside Retail Asia. Other characters grew strongly over the same period: Twinkle Twinkle revenue rose 580.6% to 2.65 billion yuan, and six characters each generated more than one billion yuan.
The third quarter was sharper. In a voluntary business update in October 2026, Pop Mart said group revenue for the three months to September fell 45% to 50% year on year, with declines in every region. Revenue in the Americas fell 70% to 75%, in Asia-Pacific outside mainland China by 65% to 70%, in Europe and other markets by 50% to 55%, and in mainland China by 25% to 30%, Inside Retail Asia reported.
Part of the decline reflects comparison with an exceptional period. The third quarter of 2025 was Pop Mart’s biggest ever, with revenue up 245% to 250%. Inside Retail Asia noted that third-quarter 2026 revenue was still roughly 70% to 90% higher than in the same quarter of 2024. Footfall in Pop Mart’s Chinese stores continued to grow, and the number of first-time customers rose at a double-digit rate.
Supply also changed. Pop Mart raised Labubu production roughly tenfold, and resale prices for many models fell by more than half, according to Inside Retail Asia. Chinese outlet Yicai reported in December 2025 that some Labubu products were trading below their shelf price. Morningstar analyst Jeff Zhang told the publication that resellers had likely made up a significant share of first-hand purchases, so falling resale prices reduced demand from those buyers as well as their profits.
In August, Wang acknowledged that the company would most likely miss its target of at least 20% growth for 2026. On October 28, Pop Mart’s shares fell as much as 6% to HK$123.80, an 18-month low.
Controversies and regulation
Labubu’s rise attracted scrutiny. In mid-2025, Russian officials proposed banning the toy, citing its appearance and potential harm to children, and authorities in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region banned the doll and seized at least 4,000, according to Wikipedia. Conspiracy theories linking the character to a demon from ancient mythology also spread on social media.
In China, Pop Mart’s share price fell after a June 2025 commentary in the state newspaper People’s Daily warned about blind-box spending among minors. Shanghai has since introduced rules on blind-box sales, including a ban for children under eight, parental consent up to 18, a 200-yuan price cap and disclosure of the odds of finding rare items, Nomade Urbain reported.
In April 2026, The New York Times reported that testing had found some Labubu dolls contained cotton from Xinjiang, which is banned under US forced-labour law, according to Wikipedia’s summary of the report.
What comes next
Pop Mart is working to turn Labubu from a trend into a long-term entertainment property. Sony Pictures acquired the rights to develop a Labubu film in November 2025, with Paul King, director of the Paddington films, announced as director in December. In March 2026, Pop Mart and Sony confirmed the project, with Steven Levenson, writer of Dear Evan Hansen, as co-writer. Labubu also appeared in the opening ceremony of the 2026 FIFA World Cup as part of a collaboration with FIFA.
The company is also leaning on its wider roster of characters. JPMorgan analysts noted, however, that newer launches including Supertutu, Merodi and KeyA had soft initial sales, according to Inside Retail Asia. Management expects every region to grow sequentially in the fourth-quarter holiday season, and expects China to grow for the full year.
The Labubu effect on fashion
Labubu’s run showed how quickly a collectible could become a fashion accessory, and how tightly its value was tied to scarcity and resale. Olivia Plotnick, founder of marketing agency Wai Social, told Bloomberg that brands built on social virality and scarcity tend to attract trend-driven buyers rather than loyal ones. Others see durability in Pop Mart’s home market: Morningstar’s Zhang expects double-digit annual growth in China over the next five years, supported by membership and repeat purchases.
Whatever happens next, the bag charm trend that Labubu accelerated has outlasted the peak of the frenzy, and Pop Mart has used its windfall to build a global store network in some of the world’s most expensive shopping streets.
Sources: Wikipedia; Hypebeast; CBS News; China Daily; South China Morning Post; The Edge Malaysia / Bloomberg; Inside Retail Asia; Nomade Urbain.
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