Labubu joins FIFA World Cup opening ceremony as surprise guest

Labubu popped up in Mexico City as a surprise guest at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony, and the sighting said as much about the market as it did about the mascot. The character appeared on Thursday, June 11, 2026, 90 minutes before kickoff, on a stage built for the first 48-team World Cup, a tournament spread across 104 matches in 16 locations in three countries.

For collectors, the key detail was not just that Labubu showed up, but how FIFA framed the moment. FIFA described LABUBU as a surprise special guest, and Chinese coverage said two Labubu characters in football jerseys joined the festivities. The ceremony itself was stacked with global names, including Shakira, Burna Boy, Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, J Balvin, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná and Tyla, which made Labubu’s screen time feel less like a cute aside and more like a deliberate piece of crossover branding.

That matters because the World Cup appearance landed after FIFA and Labubu had already been tied together through official merchandise. CGTN reported on June 2 that the World Cup tie-up was FIFA’s first partnership with a designer toy IP for official World Cup merchandise, with figures, blind boxes and accessories built around football motifs. A German CGTN report said those products were quickly sold out across official online and offline channels in Shanghai, a useful clue for where demand is strongest and how fast licensed stock can disappear when the drop feels truly official.

The numbers behind the character make the cameo look even less symbolic. Pop Mart reported 2025 revenue of 37.1 billion yuan, and THE MONSTERS, the franchise anchored by Labubu, brought in 14.16 billion yuan, or about 38 percent of total revenue. A life-size Labubu figure also sold for 1.08 million yuan at a Beijing auction in June 2025, showing how far the character had already moved beyond impulse buying and into collectible territory.

That rise did not happen overnight. Britannica describes Labubu as a collectible plush doll line created by Hong Kong-born illustrator Kasing Lung and marketed by Pop Mart, while Kasing Lung’s profile says he was born in Hong Kong in 1972 and began collaborating with How2work in 2011. The character’s celebrity trail, through sightings with Lisa of BLACKPINK, Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian and David Beckham, helped push Labubu into fashion conversation long before Mexico City gave it a football stage.

The opening-ceremony cameo now reads like a market signal. Labubu is no longer just being seen; it is being placed, licensed and tested inside major global events, and that is the kind of move that usually leads to more official drops, tighter release strategy and even sharper cross-border demand.