Pop Mart, a Chinese toy and collectibles company, reported 13.04 billion yuan in revenue for 2024—more than double what it made the year before, according to CKGSB Knowledge. To put that in perspective: the company went from roughly 6.3 billion yuan to 13.04 billion yuan in a single year. That is exceptional growth.

The company's star product is Labubu, a small furry character that the Financial Times has called central to Pop Mart's success. Labubu comes in the form of blind boxes—sealed packages where you do not know which version you will get until you open it. It works like a slot machine for collectibles: people buy multiple boxes hoping to find rare versions. This keeps them buying repeatedly.

But here is the important question: Is this growth real and lasting? When a company doubles revenue this fast, it can mean one of two things. Either customers genuinely want the product more. Or the company has flooded shops with stock and rushed into new countries without building genuine demand. Pop Mart has opened stores across Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. That spread is good for reducing risk—the company is not dependent on China alone—but it makes the numbers harder to understand from outside. Currency changes, different store types, and regional differences all muddy the picture.

There is another factor at play. On the secondary market—where collectors resell figures to each other—rare Labubu boxes fetch prices far above what Pop Mart charges. When collectors see Labubu trading hands at multiples of the retail price, it creates hype. That hype drives new customers to buy blind boxes, hoping to get a rare variant worth money. But secondary market prices can drop suddenly. If they do, that hype collapses, and so does consumer enthusiasm.

For investors and analysts, the 106.9% growth number alone tells you very little. The real questions are: Did more people buy boxes, or did each person pay more? Did the growth come from new stores in new countries, or from existing stores selling more? Are warehouses stuffed with inventory that has not actually been sold to real customers? Without answers to those questions, the headline number is just a starting point.

Pop Mart faces real risks. The company depends heavily on Labubu and a small handful of other characters. If tastes change, revenue could fall hard. Blind-box collectibles have been hot before in Asia and cooled down just as fast. And once a company reaches this size, it becomes much harder to keep doubling revenue every year.

The real test comes in 2025. If Pop Mart's growth slows dramatically—which is normal and expected—investors will need to know whether the international expansion has built something lasting or whether it was just novelty buying. That answer will tell you much more than the 2024 number itself.