Pop Mart International Group, once a star performer with a surging cult following for its collectible figures such as LABUBU, is witnessing a marked retreat, reflecting from both its share price and the secondary market for its toys.
The company, which notched a spectacular 3,200% rally from lows in 2022 and 111% year-to-date growth in 2025, has now dropped roughly 44% from its August 2025 peak and is down 28% in just the past three months, reflecting growing investor skepticism over the longevity of the trend.
Additionally, POPMART80 by KTB, a Depositary Receipt in the Thai stock market that links to POPMART in Hong Kong, is down 30% in the past three months and 11.5% in the past month.
This shift comes amid concerns that the sharp-toothed LABUBU—the lead character behind Pop Mart’s meteoric rise—may have peaked in popularity as a fleeting trend rather than cemented itself as a sustainable franchise. Prices for Pop Mart figures, particularly in the resale market, have echoed the decline. Data from Chinese art toy resale platform Qiandao shows that LABUBU’s “Luck” edition, which launched in April, soared to over 500 yuan on the secondary market in June, but tumbled to nearly 108 yuan by late October. Other figures in the popular “The Monsters” series are now fetching prices below those in official Pop Mart stores.
Still, the company’s underlying financial performance remains robust. First-half 2025 revenue jumped to 13.9 billion yuan, over five times higher than its full-year sales in 2020. In the three months ended September, Pop Mart reported sales growth of up to 250%, primarily fueled by expansion in overseas markets.
Despite this impressive growth, some investors remain unconvinced about Pop Mart’s ability to transition from a fad-driven business to an enduring, multi-platform entertainment franchise. Although the company has expanded aggressively—launching the 40,000 square-meter Pop Land theme park in Beijing, initiating talks with Sony Pictures for a possible Labubu movie, establishing an in-house animation studio, and debuting the POPOP jewellery line.
Contrarily, Morgan Stanley analysts noted in a November commentary that while recent profit-taking is expected, the stock’s current valuation is “overly preemptive” and does not reflect the growth potential of the customer base. They argue that the market’s attention to short-term product cycles misses the longer-term opportunities from Pop Mart’s recurring clients.
The question now is whether Pop Mart can parlay its initial wave of success into more durable, Disney-like entertainment IP, or if the current slowdown heralds the end of a short-lived phenomenon.
