Labubu Trend on TikTok: Origin, Fakes and Where It Stands in 2026

Labubu is a small plush monster with rabbit ears and a nine-tooth grin, drawn in 2015 by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung and sold in blind boxes by Chinese toy company Pop Mart. The trend blew up on TikTok after Blackpink’s Lisa posted one in April 2024: unboxings, keychains on designer bags, overnight queues, fakes. By September 2026 the frenzy is cooling and sales have dipped for the first time, but the video format still pulls views. If you post Labubu content, a few extra TikTok views at the start help you stand out.

Where does Labubu come from?

Labubu was born in 2015 in The Monsters, a picture book series by Kasing Lung inspired by Nordic folklore. She is a small, overeager elf who causes chaos while trying to help. In 2019 the artist signed with Pop Mart, the Chinese company known for collectible figures sold in surprise boxes, and Labubu became a designer toy.

For four years it stayed niche. The turning point came in April 2024, when Lisa shared an Instagram story of herself hugging a freshly unboxed Labubu, then showed up with several of them clipped to her luxury bag. Thailand went first, then the rest of Asia. Rihanna and Dua Lipa followed in 2025, and TikTok did the rest.

Vanity Fair even asked Lisa about her obsession:

@vanityfair

It’s not just you, Lisa is as Labubu-obsessed as the rest of us. #lisablackpink #blackpink #whitelotus #lalisa #lalisamanoban

♬ original sound – Vanity Fair

How does the Labubu trend work on TikTok?

It all starts with the blind box. You buy from a series of six or seven designs without knowing which one you’ll get, and each series also hides a much rarer “secret” figure. Opening the box on camera turns into a tiny moment of suspense, which is why Labubu unboxings became a genre of their own.

Here is what opening a full series looks like, in this case “Big Into Energy”, released in spring 2025:

@vanessa.h.lopez

Let’s unbox the whole set of the new labubu the monsters big into energy V3 series. I really want the secret!!😭 #labubu

♬ original sound – Vanessa Lopez

Three other formats grew up around the unboxing. The bag check, where you show off the Labubus hanging from your bag. Customization, with knitted outfits, beads or nail polish. And real versus fake, which took off with “Lafufus”, the counterfeits you can spot by their extra teeth or a QR code that leads nowhere.

Why did everyone want one?

Start with the face. Cute at first glance, a little unsettling at the second. That mismatch stops the scrolling thumb, and it works on teenagers as well as on adult collectors.

Then there’s scarcity, which Pop Mart keeps up. Series sell out in minutes, which creates queues, then a resale market. In May 2025 Pop Mart paused in-store sales across the UK after fights broke out in queues, including at its Stratford store, CNN reported. In June 2025 a one-of-a-kind mint green Labubu over a meter tall sold for more than one million yuan at an auction in Beijing.

Counterfeits came next. On July 31, 2025, French customs in Dunkirk seized about 25,000 fake plushes from a truck coming from Britain, with boxes labeled “pap mort” instead of “POP MART”. On August 1, Mulhouse customs held almost 20,000 more. French customs issued a consumer warning that these fakes can be dangerous for children.

Is the Labubu hype over in 2026?

It is slowing down, and the numbers show it. In the first half of 2026, sales of The Monsters family, which includes Labubu, fell 7.5% to 4.45 billion yuan, their first ever decline, according to Inside Retail Asia (August 25, 2026). Their share of Pop Mart’s revenue dropped from 34.7% to 26%. Abroad, online sales fell 44.6% in the Americas and 59% in Europe.

Pop Mart is now betting on other characters such as Twinkle Twinkle, and on film: Sony Pictures bought the rights to a Labubu movie in November 2025, and Paddington director Paul King was announced a month later. For creators, the takeaway is simple. The 2025 wave has passed, but the collector audience is still there, and it still watches a lot of videos.

How do you make a Labubu video that performs?

1. Pick an angle: unboxing a recent series, a full collection, customization or real versus fake. The Lafufu comparison works well because viewers learn something.
2. Hook in the first second: a close-up of the grin, or the box shaken next to the mic. The rustle of cardboard is part of the fun.
3. Keep the suspense: reveal the figure at the very end. If you pull the secret, show your real reaction, not a staged scream.
4. Shoot vertical, with soft light: fur looks bad under a harsh lamp. A plain background makes the colors pop.
5. Check authenticity on camera: scan the QR code on the box, count the nine teeth, show the packaging. Your audience will trust you more.
6. Ask a question in the caption: “which one did you want?”, “real or fake?”. Comments push the video further.
7. Work the first hour: reply fast and pin the best comment. To send a strong signal to the algorithm, a pack of TikTok likes right after posting helps the video reach more people.

Which hashtags should you use?

The tags that keep showing up are #labubu, #labubuthemonsters and #popmart, plus #blindbox or #unboxing depending on the format. Since August 2025 TikTok only accepts five hashtags per video, so keep three for Labubu and two for your niche, like #asmr for a sound-focused unboxing or #crochet for a handmade outfit.

Post on the day a new series drops when you can, since that is when searches spike. Otherwise, test weekday evenings and compare your analytics.

How are brands using it?

Pop Mart keeps stacking official collaborations: a Coca-Cola winter series in late 2024, a One Piece series in early 2025. For a brand without a license, the clean route is to talk about the trend without using the character: a yarn shop showing how to knit a plush outfit, a jeweler making matching bag charms.

Stay away from Lafufus. Selling or promoting a counterfeit, even as a joke, exposes you legally and drives collectors away. For a shop account that is just starting, some TikTok followers also make the profile look credible the day a video takes off.