From memes to public mishaps, 2025 was a year of non-stop viral moments.
However, the year’s most viral moments didn’t just rack up online views: They drove public discourse, sparked debate, and highlighted the extent to which online moments can shape real-world trends.
Labubus
A toy called Labubu is displayed in Dundalk, Ireland, on December 10, 2025.
Kilcoyse Cluster/Reuters
Arguably the most famous viral trend of 2025, Chinese Labubu dolls took the world by storm.
The stuffed animals were created by Belgian artist Kasing Lung, born in Hong Kong, based on figures from Norse mythology.
Collectibles turned toy company Pop Mart into a billion-dollar business, as Labubus sold for up to thousands of dollars on the resale market, Boosted by the many celebrities who carry the keychains in public.
Emily Brough, director of licensing at Pop Mart, told ABC News that “Labubu’s recent releases sold out in a matter of minutes, both online and in stores,” as Long lines around shopping centers..
Markus Maciel, associate professor of toy design at Otis College, told ABC News that the toy’s vibrancy is mainly due to the blind nature customers receive from Labubu.
“There are a lot of people on TikTok who do blind unboxing events,” he said. “It’s like Pokémon, where you get your cards, you’re not sure where you’re going to get them. These blind box moves help inspire people to keep wanting to collect, collect, collect.”
In 2025, thieves even stole Labubus worth thousands of dollars.
67 memes
In this Oct. 30, 2025 file photo, 67, Dictionary.com’s crowned word of the year, is displayed on a smartphone screen in Los Angeles.
Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
The biggest threat of 2025? Number 67, apparently.
But what exactly does 67 mean?
According Dictionary.comwho selected “67” as his Word of the year 2025“the term is largely absurd”, but “some argue that it means ‘more or less’ or ‘maybe this, maybe that’, especially when combined with a hand gesture in which both palms face up and move alternately up and down.”
It is also pronounced “six-seven” and never “sixty-seven,” notes Dictionary.com.
Whatever its meaning or origin, Generation Alpha (that is, children born in the digital generation from the 2010s to the present) have embraced it, in part because it is “intentionally absurd and about being in the absurd.”
As the viral meme spread throughout the year, companies, teachers and others attempted to crack 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 pages 66-67 of the missal, and my 5-year-old son went completely crazy repeating ‘six seven’ like 10 times. And now I think we should make this narrow exception to the first amendment and ban these numbers forever.” Vance posted on X.
“Where did this come from? I don’t understand. 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 a school to hand out fake tickets to students 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 end the use of the phrase “6 7.” (Fake) tickets were handed out to as many students using the phrase as possible,” according to the Facebook post.
Coldplay’s ‘kiss chamber’
A “kiss cam” moment at a Coldplay concert in Boston showing a man and woman together has gone viral.
Grace Springer via Storyful
In what became 16 infamous seconds of 2025, two corporate executives were caught on camera dancing intimately 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. Okay, come on, you’re okay. Uh oh, what?” Martin said. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just really shy. I’m not really sure.”
The viral video caused an internal investigation from technology 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, he said he had received between 50 and 60 death threats due to the viral moment.
“I made a bad decision and I had a couple of lunches and I danced and acted inappropriately with my boss. And it’s nothing,” she said. “I took responsibility and gave up my career because of it. That’s the price I chose to pay.”
Louvre robbery
French police officers stand next to a furniture lift used by thieves to enter the Louvre Museum on the Quai Francois Mitterrand in Paris on October 19, 2025.
Resign Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images
In the most infamous heist in recent history, four masked thieves stole $102 million worth of jewelry from the Louvre’s Apollo Gallery in October, which has yet to be recovered.
The robbery lasted less than seven minutes, as the bandits used a truck with an extendable ladder to cut a second-floor balcony window, according to the police.
Dressed as construction workers, the thieves smashed two display cases and fled with eight pieces of jewelry belonging to Emperor Napoleon and his wife before fleeing on a motorcycle.
When police arrived minutes later, they found two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket and a yellow vest that one of the fleeing perpetrators apparently dropped.
$102 million worth of jewels stolen from Louvre
Louvre Museum
