12 viral and trending moments of 2025: What's your top pick? - Gulf News

A year defined by stories we shared — and the ones that unexpectedly consumed the internet

From AI nostalgia filters to spaceflight stunts, toy obsessions, and accidental scandals, 2025 has become a year defined by the stories we shared — and the ones that unexpectedly consumed the internet.

A Studio Ghibli–style AI selfie trend turned feeds into animated dreamscapes, while Katy Perry’s all-female space mission set a new cultural milestone.

Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls became the year’s hottest collectible, Coldplay sparked a viral “kiss cam” fiasco, and TikTok even revived apocalyptic prophecy with #RaptureTok.

Major real-world drama blended with meme culture—from a Louvre crown-jewel heist to a bizarre “100 men vs 1 gorilla” debate.

Brands, celebrities, and even haunted dolls joined the frenzy, proving once again: in 2025, anything can go viral.

OpenAI's ChatGPT update sparked global selfies, memes in Ghibli style. The Studio Ghibli AI filter became a hit due to a combination of its highly nostalgic and emotionally resonant art style, extreme accessibility through popular AI tools, and the inherent shareability of transforming personal photos into the whimsical Ghibli aesthetic. People enjoyed sharing their "Ghibli-fied" selfies, pets, and landscapes, which further fueled the trend's exponential growth.

Blue Origin's NS-31 missionlaunched into space on April 14, 2025 with an all-female crew. The all-female crew consisted of: Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn. Experience: The crew spent about 10 minutes in space, reaching an altitude of 107 km (66 miles).

Perry saw the flight as a journey and a way to inspire her daughter and other girls. King described the experience as surprisingly "calming and peaceful" and a reminder to "do better, be better".

Sanchez called the experience "profound" and said it gave her an urge to "protect this planet". Nguyen noted it was a dream come true and an opportunity to honour her past self.

Labubu dolls — those wide-eyed, mischievous, slightly creepy yet irresistibly adorable figures — have morphed from indie art toys into global status symbols, sparking long queues, viral auctions, and a subculture of devoted “Labubu hunters.”

TikTok creators began documenting their “blind-box pulls” and reaction videos. Rare Labubus became the new lottery tickets. Pop Mart’s monster character exploded, with influencers like @vanillamace unboxing "Christmas tree" fails (15M views).

The design tapped into a unique aesthetic: a blend of spooky folklore, childlike whimsy, and deliberate imperfections that made each figure feel handmade and alive. What began as a niche designer toy has turned into one of the most feverish pop-culture frenzies of 2025.

During a July 2025 concert, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin jokingly commented on a couple's awkward reaction to being featured on the jumbotron, quipping, "'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy'". The moment went viral and led to significant real-world consequences for the couple, who were later identified as a tech CEO and a colleague. It led to resignations/divorce memes.

The prediction that the Rapture would occur on September 23 or 24, 2025, was made by South African preacher Joshua Mhlakela and gained significant traction on TikTok under the hashtag #RaptureTok. The date has since passed without the event materializing, and the prediction has been widely dismissed by religious scholars and mainstream Christian teachings.

The Louvre Museum in Paris was closed afterthieves stole eight royal artefacts in broad daylight, worth an estimated €88M jewels, in 8 minutes. Security footage shows three men fleeing with priceless jewels, including items belonging to Napoleon and Empress Eugenie, in under 10 minutes.

CCTV footage of thieves inside the Louvre, the world-famous museum, showed them looting Napoleon’s jewels in front of visitors. Security cameras captured one of the suspects, dressed in construction gear, cutting through a glass display case while visitors walked nearby. The thieves used a basket lift to reach the museum’s facade, forced a window, smashed display cases, and escaped on a motorcycle.

"1 Gorilla", also known as “100 Guys vs. 1 Gorilla”, refers to a viral debate about who would win in a fight to the death, 100 men or one gorilla. The concept went viral on TikTok and spread to Twitter / X and Reddit in late April 2025. Some posted simulations that overwhelmingly showed the gorilla defeating the 100 men. Reddit tweet reignited vs silverback gorilla; TikTok/YouTube went wild with endless memes.

The American Eagle jeans ad featuring Sydney Sweeney went viral due to a controversial wordplay where Sweeney says, "My jeans are blue", a pun, after discussing her genes, which some viewers interpreted as a potentially racist reference to eugenics or even Nazi propaganda. Others found the ad clever, while Sweeney's representatives and the brand defended it, st