From Labubus to the Louvre heist: The viral moments that defined 2025

From Labubus to the Louvre heist: The viral moments that defined 2025 From memes to public mishaps, 2025 was a year of nonstop viral moments. A toy called Labubu is displayed in Dundalk, Ireland, December 10, 2025.Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters In this Oct. 30, 2025, file photo, 67, crowned word of the year by Dictionary.com, is displayed on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles.Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images, FILE A "kiss cam" moment at a Coldplay concert in Boston showing a man and woman together has gone viral.Grace Springer via Storyful French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19, 2025.Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images $102 million in jewels stolen from LouvreLouvre Museum However, the most viral moments of the year did not just rack up views online -- they drove public discourse, sparked debates and highlighted just how much online moments can shape real-world trends. Labubus Arguably the most famous viral trend of 2025, Chinese Labubu dolls took the world by storm. The plush toys were created by Hong Kong-born Belgian artist Kasing Lung based on figures from Nordic mythology. The collectables made toy company Pop Mart a billion-dollar business, as Labubus sold for up to thousands of dollars on the resale market, fuled by the many celebrities toting the keychains around in public. Emily Brough, the head of licensing at Pop Mart told ABC News that "recent Labubu drops have sold out within minutes -- both online and in-store," as long lines wrapping around malls . Markus Maciel, associate professor of toy design at Otis College, told ABC News that the vitality of the toy is chiefly due to blind nature of which Labubu customers receive. "You have a lot of people on TikTok do blind box opening events," he said. "It's kind of like Pokemon where you get your cards, you're not sure where you're gonna get. These blind box motions help inspire people to keep wanting to collect and collect and collect." Burglars were even stealing thousands of dollars worth of Labubus in 2025. 67 meme The biggest menace of 2025? The number 67, apparently. But what, exactly, does 67 mean? According to Dictionary.com , which selected "67" as its 2025 Word of the Year , "the term is largely nonsensical" but "some argue it means 'so-so,' or 'maybe this, maybe that,' especially when paired with a hand gesture where both palms face up and move alternately up and down." It's also pronounced "six-seven" and never "sixty-seven," Dictionary.com notes. Whatever its meaning or its origin, Generation Alpha - meaning kids born in the digital generation of the 2010s through the present - have embraced it, in part because it's "purposefully nonsensical and all about being in on the absurdity." As the viral meme spread throughout the year, businesses, teachers and others tried cracking down on its use. Even Vice President JD Vance made a tongue-in-cheek call for the term to be...

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