Gaming Investments: AppLovin, Unity, and Ugly Labubu Dolls
When most people think of gaming, they picture consoles, mobile hits, or maybe Roblox worlds. But behind the scenes, the real money game is in investments, stocks, acquisitions, and cultural icons that break out far beyond gameplay.
Serious Money Moves
Over the past year, gaming-related stocks have been on fire:
- AppLovin (NASDAQ: APP), the Mobile Ad Tech powerhouse, is up 410% in just one year, now officially joining the S&P 500 index. More? $9.5 in Jan 2023, now $644. Yeah, 68x. 🦄
- Unity (NYSE: U), despite its rollercoaster with dev pricing, has soared 120% year-over-year.
- Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO), owner of Rockstar and Zynga, jumped 62% thanks to GTA VI anticipation and live-service strength.
Add Tencent’s empire of global stakes (Epic, Riot, Supercell), Sony’s steady PlayStation revenues, and Microsoft’s $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and you see one thing clearly: investors don’t treat gaming as play, they treat it as prime growth.
From Pikachu, LEGO to Labubu: The Fun Side of Profit
Pokémon: The Eternal Money Printer
- Pokémon’s licensing pulls $1B+ annually, with Pokémon Go still printing hundreds of millions.
- The biggest intellectual property (IP) in the world, in terms of total revenue. It has earned over $100 billion through games, merchandise, and media since its 1996 debut.
- If you want exposure, Nintendo stock (market cap ~$60B) is your ticket.
LEGO: The Indestructible Brand
- LEGO generates almost $10B annually, with margins boosted by IP collabs like Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Marvel.
- Its gaming crossover is huge — LEGO Fortnite and LEGO Star Wars are multi-million sellers.
- From attic minifigs to $1,000 collector sets, LEGO proves that plastic bricks scale across generations.
Labubu: $40 Billion?
Now the fun (and weird) part.
Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls have turned a quirky “ugly-cute” character into a $40 billion empire. Profits grew 350% in H1 2025, shares on the Hong Kong exchange are up 655% in a year, and founder Wang Ning has entered China’s top 10 richest.
But this craze didn’t explode until one cultural spark: BLACKPINK’s Lisa.
Lisa, the Labubu Queen
In April 2024, Lisa casually showed off a Labubu keychain — and the world lost it. Since then, she’s gone full collector mode:
- Labubu outfits on stage: At the London stop of BLACKPINK’s Deadline Tour, she wore a custom Labubu-themed outfit — miniskirt, corset, furry pink boots, and a matching Labubu mask. Fans crowned her the “Labubu Queen.”
- Bag charms and blind boxes: Lisa flaunts rare plushies and blind-box variants on her livestreams and with luxury bags. A single Labubu pendant she showcased sold out instantly.
- Exclusive collabs: Designer Kasing Lung himself sent Lisa mega-sized Labubu and Zimomo dolls as a thank you for boosting the craze.
- Her collection is insane: Halloween pumpkin Labubus, “Big Into Energy” variants, Mokoko blankets, custom collabs (even a Mario Maurer crossover). At this point, Lisa could open her own Labubu museum.
Her obsession has real economic power — Labubu’s global demand skyrocketed after her endorsements, driving the “ugly doll” into luxury fashion, pop culture, and billion-dollar markets.
Labubu vs Pokemon
At the height of the original Pokémon TCG craze in the U.S. (roughly 1999 to 2000), trading cards alone topped $100 million in sales in just January to June 1999, or about $17 million per month on average, alongside $42 million in Pokémon toys and $69 million in video games over that same six-month window. Wizards of the Coast’s 1999 annualized sales tied to Pokémon helped drive an estimated $669 million in revenue that year.
Labubu’s 2025 surge looks steeper in pace and more digitally driven. In H1 2025, Pop Mart posted RMB 13.9 billion (US$1.93b) revenue, with RMB 4.8 billion from Labubu alone, roughly RMB 800 million per month from Labubu during the half, while company profits rose nearly 400% year over year. On marketplaces and social commerce, Labubu’s June 2025 TikTok Shop revenue reached US$5.5 million, and StockX data showed resale prices averaging US$121, with volumes doubling from January to June 2025.
Fall of Labubu
Currently Pop Mart stock is sliding 9% after reports of falling resale prices and cooling demand. Re-sale data show that “Mini Labubu” prices have dropped 24% from their recent peak in China’s secondary markets.
A big part of the problem has been the proliferation of counterfeits and quality issues. Knockoff versions, often called “Lafufus,” are widespread, and authorities have seized tens of thousands of fake dolls for safety issues, missing authenticity markers, and often poor build or toxic material concerns.
This dilutes the premium image among collectors: when you can’t reliably distinguish a real Labubu from a fake, or when fakes flood resale channels at lower prices, resistance builds. At the same time, increased supply (both legitimate and illegitimate) and less “cool factor” among trend-watchers is reducing urgency to buy, which undermines the blind-box / collector model that depends heavily on hype and scarcity. This was not the case for Pokémon, as it preserved its brand much more aggressively, and therefore it has stood the test of time.
Why It Matters
AppLovin’s 5x stock run, Unity’s 120% surge, and Take-Two’s 62% rise show investors love growth in gaming infrastructure and IP. But when you zoom out, Pokémon, LEGO, and Labubu prove something even more powerful:
Icons make the money.
- Pokémon: Decades of merchandising > game sales.
- LEGO: Plastic bricks turned multimedia empire.
- Labubu: A weird little plush that went from niche to $40B phenomenon thanks to K-pop stardom.
In gaming, toys, and culture, it’s not just about downloads or graphics. It’s about obsession.
Whether it’s Pikachu, a LEGO brick, or Lisa’s Labubu charm, the real ROI is when fans can’t stop collecting.
