In late 2023, a short video clip of British YouTuber and boxer KSI seeing a Labubu collectible for the first time spread across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube with a speed that surprised everyone, including Pop Mart. KSI screamed. Then he screamed again. His reaction to the wide-eyed, pointy-eared, gap-toothed goblin character from Chinese toy company Pop Mart was so viscerally funny that it turned a niche collector’s item into a mainstream cultural conversation almost overnight. The phrase “KSI Labubu” became one of the defining internet moments of 2024 and launched a controversy that neither the creator nor the toy company anticipated. This article covers everything: who KSI is, what Labubu is, how the meme started, what the controversy involved, and why the intersection of one British YouTuber and one Chinese toy character became a moment that reshaped global pop culture.
Who Is KSI?
Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, known professionally as KSI or JJ, was born on June 19, 1993, in Watford, Hertfordshire, England. He is an English influencer, professional boxer, musician, and entrepreneur. He is a co-founding member of YouTube group the Sidemen, the CEO of Misfits Boxing, and the co-owner of several businesses including Prime Hydration and Lunchly.
What Is KSI’s Career Background?
KSI began his YouTube career in 2009 under the username KSIOlajideBT, posting videos of himself playing the FIFA football video game. His funny commentary and reactions made him popular with young viewers quickly. He dropped out of sixth form college to focus on content creation full-time. His parents were initially unhappy with that decision. YouTube soon paid him £1,500 per month, which changed their perspective.
He formed the Sidemen in 2013 with six other British YouTubers. That collective became one of the most successful creator groups in internet history. KSI runs three personal YouTube channels alongside four Sidemen channels, and has accumulated over 34 million subscribers and more than 8 billion views across his platforms. According to Sports Illustrated, he brings in an estimated $250,000 per video, according to Bored Panda.
His boxing career began in 2018 with a fight against fellow YouTuber Joe Weller. He subsequently fought Logan Paul in two high-profile matches that popularized the influencer boxing genre globally. His music career produced charting singles across multiple countries. His entrepreneurial ventures include Prime Hydration, co-founded with Logan Paul, which became one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the world; XIX Vodka; Sides restaurant chain; Sidemen Clothing; and Misfits Boxing. KSI net worth is estimated at approximately $100 million as of 2025, according to multiple outlets including Surprise Sports and net-city.co.uk.
What Makes KSI Culturally Significant?
KSI represents the maturation of YouTube as a cultural institution. He did not begin as a celebrity and transition to digital media. He built his celebrity entirely through digital media and then expanded into industries that traditional celebrities inhabit. His trajectory from a teenager recording FIFA commentary in his bedroom to a $100 million entrepreneur who boxes in arenas, charts in music, and appears on Britain’s Got Talent demonstrates what the digital creator economy produces at its highest level.
His audience spans demographics from teenagers who discovered him through gaming content to adults who followed his boxing career and music. That cross-demographic reach made his reaction to Labubu visible to an unusually wide audience when the clip spread, which explains why a toy reaction video generated the cultural footprint it did.
| KSI Basic Profile | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji |
| Date of Birth | June 19, 1993 |
| Birthplace | Watford, Hertfordshire, England |
| Age (2025) | 32 years old |
| YouTube Subscribers | Over 34 million (personal channels) |
| Net Worth (2025) | Estimated $100 million |
| Key Businesses | Prime Hydration, Misfits Boxing, XIX Vodka, Sides, Sidemen Clothing |
| Boxing Record | Professional; defeated Logan Paul twice |
| Music | Multiple charting singles and albums |
What Is Labubu?
Labubu appeared in 2015 as a character in The Monsters storybook, created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung, who drew inspiration from Nordic mythology and European folklore. The character is a goblin-like figure with pointed ears, wild fur, a wide mischievous grin showing multiple sharp teeth, and large expressive eyes. Labubu is simultaneously adorable and unsettling, which is precisely what made it so marketable.
How Did Labubu Become a Global Collectible?
Pop Mart, the Chinese designer toy company, launched collectible Labubu figures in 2023 as part of its signature blind box format. The blind box model requires consumers to purchase sealed boxes without knowing which specific variant of the figure they will receive. That uncertainty drives repeat purchasing and creates a secondary market for rare variants. Pop Mart had built its business model around this format across multiple character lines, but Labubu became its most commercially powerful property by a significant margin.
The Labubu craze took off in April 2024, when K-pop star Lisa of Blackpink showcased a keychain on her bag, according to QZ. Adoption soared after a number of celebrity endorsements, driving fans to queue for blind box surprises and collect rare variants. Labubu revenue grew over 1,200% year-on-year in 2024, contributing roughly 22% of Pop Mart’s total revenue, according to QZ. Pop Mart’s total 2024 revenue reached approximately $1.8 billion, up 106.9% year-on-year.
By August 2024, Labubu had made $870 million in sales, according to The Poly Post. Common figures trade in the $25 to $60 resale range, while rarer variants often sell between $200 and $500 depending on theme, edition size, and condition. Ultra-rare and collaboration pieces have reached luxury price points, with some limited editions trading at five-figure amounts at specialist auctions, according to Pop Boxss Blog.
Why Did Labubu Resonate With Global Audiences?
The character’s appeal operates on a specific tension. Labubu looks monstrous at first encounter — the sharp teeth, the wild fur, the goblin features. Then its expressive eyes and the character’s overall scale and softness convert the initial alarm into affection. That transition from mild fright to genuine fondness is the emotional journey that made KSI’s reaction so relatable. He screamed because Labubu is designed to make you scream. Then you want to own one.
The blind box format amplified that emotional journey. Opening a sealed box produces genuine suspense. Receiving a rare variant produces genuine joy. Those experiences are designed and calibrated deliberately, and they produce shareable content naturally. TikTok and Instagram filled with unboxing videos. Creators including Vanillamace went viral over the summer for suspenseful unboxing videos where she repeatedly bought boxes and reacted authentically to each result, according to The Poly Post. The format suited social media’s appetite for real emotional reactions.
How Did the KSI Labubu Meme Start?
The phrase “KSI Labubu” refers to a viral internet meme that originated from KSI’s humorous reaction to seeing the popular blind box toy character Labubu for the first time. The term gained widespread popularity after a clip of KSI screaming in shock and amusement went viral on TikTok and YouTube in late 2023, according to Alibaba’s SmartBuy analysis of the meme’s cultural spread.
What Happened in the Original Viral Video?
The clip showed KSI encountering Labubu and reacting with loud, genuine shock. His scream was not performative YouTube content. It was the authentic reaction of someone who was not expecting to see a small goblin figure with prominent teeth. His expression cycled rapidly from confusion to alarm to laughter. Millions of people who had never heard of Labubu before encountered the character through that reaction and immediately searched for it.
The meme spread because it captured something universal: the specific combination of surprise and delight that an intentionally unsettling-but-cute object produces. KSI’s reaction was the ideal demonstration of Labubu’s core appeal. He screamed in exactly the way the designers probably hoped viewers would react.
Pop Mart capitalized on the momentum by releasing a limited KSI Reaction Edition Labubu box in early 2024, featuring a miniature version of KSI screaming, packaged with a QR code linking to the original video, according to Alibaba’s cultural analysis. That response demonstrated how quickly consumer brands now monitor and activate around organic meme content. Pop Mart did not orchestrate the KSI collaboration. It emerged from fan engagement and the company responded within weeks.
How Did the Meme Affect Labubu’s Global Reach?
Prior to the KSI incident, international awareness of Labubu remained limited mostly to dedicated collectors, according to the cultural analysis from Alibaba’s SmartBuy platform. The meme dramatically accelerated global recognition, leading to increased sales outside Asia and prompting Pop Mart to expand pop-up stores in Europe and North America. The KSI connection gave Western audiences a familiar face and a familiar emotional response to anchor their understanding of what Labubu was and why it was worth caring about.
That cultural gateway function is something KSI’s reach is particularly well suited for. His audience includes young people across the United Kingdom, the United States, Europe, and beyond. A viral moment on his platform reaches demographics that Pop Mart’s own marketing would struggle to access organically. The meme did more for Labubu’s international brand recognition than most deliberate marketing campaigns could have achieved.
What Was the KSI Labubu Controversy?
The KSI Labubu story has a second chapter that generated very different attention from the original viral moment.
What Was the Dark-Skinned Labubu Controversy?
A Labubu collectible figure with notably dark skin coloring entered circulation and became connected to KSI in online discussions, generating accusations of blackface representation. The Poly Post referenced the controversy directly, noting that creator Lilz Bullz Marbella also went viral because of her scandal with the blackface KSI Labubu. That description reflected the conversation circulating across social media platforms about whether a dark-skinned collectible figure associated with KSI’s image carried racist imagery.
KSI is of Nigerian heritage. The intersection of a dark-skinned collectible figure, his name, and the Labubu brand produced a conversation that moved quickly across TikTok comment sections and fan communities. TikTok videos under the hashtag #ksilabubu included content debating the racial coding of the figure and whether its coloring was intentional, accidental, or irrelevant to its design.
Pop Mart did not issue a formal statement directly addressing the controversy in any named major publication that confirmed specific company response. The origins and manufacturing intentions behind the specific dark-skinned variant remain unclear in the public record. No named credible outlet has confirmed who produced the specific variant at the center of the controversy or whether it was an official Pop Mart product, a custom modification, or an unofficial reproduction.
How Did Online Communities Respond?
Online responses divided sharply between people who found the association concerning and people who dismissed the controversy as overcorrection. Both positions spread rapidly across TikTok. KSI himself reacted to the broader Labubu situation publicly, with TikTok creators documenting his response, though no formal written statement from KSI addressing the specific dark-skinned figure controversy appears in the named major outlet record.
The controversy illustrated a consistent pattern in viral collectible culture: when a figure gains global recognition through celebrity association, every variant of that figure acquires additional scrutiny from audiences who bring their own cultural frameworks to what they see. A product that reads neutrally in one market context can carry very different meanings in another.
Why Does the KSI Labubu Intersection Matter Culturally?
The full KSI Labubu story is more than a funny clip and a collectibles boom. It represents several intersecting forces in contemporary digital culture operating simultaneously.
What Does the Story Reveal About Modern Pop Culture?
First, it demonstrates the growing power of creator culture to launch consumer products faster than traditional celebrity endorsements. KSI did not review Labubu for a fee. He reacted to it organically. That authenticity generated trust and curiosity in his audience more effectively than any paid promotion could have. Brands monitoring social media responded within weeks because they understood what the organic reach represented.
Second, it shows how Chinese designer toy culture crossed into Western mainstream awareness. Labubu existed as a beloved collector’s item for years before KSI’s reaction accelerated its global profile. The blind box model, the Pop Mart retail expansion, and the Lisa of Blackpink association had already created momentum. KSI’s moment was an accelerant applied to existing fuel, and the result was explosive.
Third, the controversy that followed demonstrates how quickly cultural products acquire racial and political dimensions when they enter global circulation. A toy that reads as quirky and endearing in one context carries entirely different associations when its coloring, its name connections, and its international distribution intersect across different communities simultaneously.
Finally, the commercial outcome is staggering. Labubu helped Pop Mart’s sales on US TikTok Shop grow from $429,259 in May 2024 to $4,841,871 in May 2025 — a 1,828% increase. A significant portion of that international growth traces to the cultural awareness that viral moments, including the KSI reaction, helped create.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the KSI Labubu meme?
The KSI Labubu meme originated from a viral clip of British YouTuber KSI screaming in shock and amusement after encountering the Labubu collectible toy for the first time. The clip spread widely on TikTok and YouTube in late 2023 and significantly accelerated global awareness of Labubu, according to cultural analysis from Alibaba’s SmartBuy platform.
Who made the KSI Labubu collectible?
Pop Mart released a limited KSI Reaction Edition Labubu box in early 2024, featuring a miniature version of KSI screaming, packaged with a QR code linking to the original viral video, according to Alibaba’s cultural analysis of the meme. The release demonstrated how quickly brands respond to organic viral moments.
What is Labubu?
Labubu is a goblin-like collectible toy character created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung in 2015, inspired by Nordic mythology. Pop Mart launched it as a blind box collectible in 2023. Labubu revenue grew over 1,200% year-on-year in 2024, contributing roughly 22% of Pop Mart’s company total revenue.
What was the controversy around the dark-skinned KSI Labubu?
A dark-skinned Labubu figure connected to KSI’s name generated accusations of blackface imagery across social media, particularly TikTok. The origins and manufacturing intentions behind the specific variant remain unclear in the public record. No named major outlet has confirmed whether it was an official Pop Mart product or an unofficial modification.
Who is KSI?
KSI, born Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji on June 19, 1993, is a British YouTuber, boxer, musician, and entrepreneur from Watford. He co-founded the Sidemen, launched Prime Hydration with Logan Paul, and built an estimated net worth of $100 million as of 2025, according to multiple outlets.
Why did KSI’s Labubu reaction go viral?
His reaction was authentic and unscripted. Labubu’s design intentionally produces a startled response before affection takes over. KSI’s scream captured that exact emotional journey in a few seconds, making it instantly relatable and shareable for millions of people who had never encountered the toy before.
How much is Labubu worth?
Common Labubu figures typically sell in the $25 to $60 resale range, while rarer variants often trade between $200 and $500 depending on theme, edition size, and condition, according to Pop Boxss Blog. Ultra-rare collaboration pieces have reached five-figure amounts at specialist auctions.
Did Pop Mart benefit from the KSI meme?
Yes. Pop Mart capitalized on the moment by releasing an official KSI Reaction Edition Labubu. The meme accelerated global awareness of Labubu internationally and contributed to Pop Mart expanding pop-up stores in Europe and North America, according to Alibaba’s SmartBuy cultural analysis.
What is KSI’s net worth?
KSI net worth is estimated at approximately $100 million as of 2025, according to multiple outlets including Surprise Sports and net-city.co.uk. His income comes from YouTube, Prime Hydration, Misfits Boxing, XIX Vodka, music royalties, boxing purses, and Sidemen ventures.
What happened after the KSI Labubu meme?
The meme accelerated global Labubu recognition and sales. Pop Mart released an official KSI-themed collectible. A controversy around a dark-skinned Labubu variant connected to KSI’s name generated significant online debate. Pop Mart’s US TikTok Shop sales grew 1,828% between May 2024 and May 2025, a growth trajectory partly driven by the celebrity-association moments that the KSI clip helped initiate.
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