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.
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 banned.
"Yesterday at church the Bible readings started on page 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old went absolutely nuts repeating 'six seven' like 10 times. And now I think we need to make this narrow exception to the first amendment and ban these numbers forever," Vance posted on X.
"Where did this even come from? I don't understand it. When we were kids all of our viral trends at least had an origin story," he added.
In Indiana, the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office went to one school to hand out fake tickets to student caught using the phrase, joking that there was a new law against the term.
"Breaking News: These brave School Resource Officers entered a local elementary school to shut down the usage of the phrase “6 7.” Tickets (fake) were handed to as many students using the phrase as possible," according to the Facebook post.
Coldplay 'kiss cam'
In what became 16 infamous seconds of 2025, two corporate executives were caught on camera intimately dancing together on a video board at a Coldplay concert in July.
At the time, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin could be heard joking about the couple in the viral video.
"Oh, look at these two. All right, come on, you're OK. Uh oh, what?" Martin said. "Either they're having an affair, or they're just very shy. I'm not quite sure."
The viral video prompted an internal investigation of the tech company Astronomer that led CEO Andy Byron and chief people officer Kristin Cabot to resign.
Cabot spoke with The New York Times in an interview, saying she had received between 50 and 60 death threats due to the viral moment.
"I made a bad decision and had a couple of High Noons and danced and acted inappropriately with my boss. And it's not nothing," she said. "I took accountability and I gave up my career for that. That's the price I chose to pay."
Louvre robbery
In the most infamous heist in recent history, four masked thieves stole $102 million worth of jewels from the Louvre's Apollo Gallery in October, which have yet to be recovered.
The robbery lasted less than seven minutes, as the bandits used a truck with an extendable ladder to cut through a window on a second-floor balcony, according to police.
Dressed as construction workers, the robbers smashed two display cases and absconded with eight pieces of jewelry belonging to Emperor Napoleon and his wife before fleeing on motorbikes.
When police arrived minutes later, they found two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, and a yellow vest that was apparently dropped by one of the fleeing perpetrators.
