Why Chinese IPs Are Going Viral Globally: The Data Behind the Rise

It’s easy to say “Chinese IPs are blowing up overseas.” But is it actually true?

Yes — and this time we have the numbers to prove it, not the vibes.

In late 2025, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) surveyed overseas consumers across Europe, North America, Southeast/South Asia, Japan-Korea, and the Middle East & Africa. Their report, “The Rise of Chinese IPs,” measured global awareness, interest, and buying intent. The findings are unambiguous: Chinese IPs have crossed the threshold from “regional” to “global,” and the commercial payoff is already happening.

Here’s what the data actually says — and what it means if you’re a collector or traveler following this wave.

1. The awareness number: 74% of the world has heard of Chinese IPs

The headline figure from BCG’s survey: 74% of overseas consumers report having heard of Chinese intellectual property. And crucially, the survey excluded overseas Chinese and foreigners living in China — so this is entirely non-Chinese consumers talking.

The report explicitly concludes that Chinese original content has moved out of the overseas-Chinese community and entered the “global awareness phase.”

But awareness is uneven:

• Emerging markets lead. Southeast and South Asia have the highest recognition of Chinese IPs.
• Japan and South Korea lag — mature content markets demand more before they accept outside IP.
• By category, designer toys lead everything. Toy IPs hit 91% global awareness, vs. 60% for games and much lower for film, literature and animation.

That 91% toy figure is why Pop Mart — China’s designer-toy giant — is the country’s most successful cultural exporter right now.

2. The interest number: what actually hooks people

Here’s the honest nuance: awareness (74%) doesn’t automatically equal deep interest. BCG found average interest in Chinese IPs scores only 2.6 out of 5 globally. Recognition is high; emotional connection has room to grow.

When overseas consumers are interested, two things drive it:

1. Cultural uniqueness and fresh storytelling. Chinese worldviews, mythology, and history offer something the West genuinely doesn’t have. The genres that resonate most — according to BCG, “fantasy, wuxia, and history” are consistently the top-three most-loved Chinese themes across every region surveyed.
2. Technical and production quality. High-production-value works like Black Myth: Wukong changed expectations about what “made in China” means in entertainment.

In other words: the hook is difference — but only if the execution is world-class.

3. The buying number: the money is real

The most striking data point is commercial intent:

• Nearly 50% of overseas consumers bought a Chinese-IP product in the past year.
• About 7% of them spent over $100 a year — a meaningful high-value consumer base is emerging.
• 70% say they would consider buying Chinese-IP products in the future, with the strongest growth in higher-income markets: North America, Europe, Japan, and Korea.

BCG’s conclusion: Chinese IPs are moving from “awareness” into the “commercial conversion” stage, and the growth hotspots are the high-income, mature IP-consumer markets.

4. The proof points: Ne Zha 2 and Labubu

Two names carry this entire story — one a $2-billion film, the other a $2-billion toy line.

Ne Zha 2, the animated blockbuster. The sequel to 2019’s Ne Zha — a modern retelling of the centuries-old myth of the rebellious child deity who defies fate — became the highest-grossing animated film in history, and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time across all genres, passing $2.26 billion globally by April 2026. It is the only Asian, non-Hollywood film in the all-time top ten. It was built by nearly 140 Chinese animation studios and over 4,000 animators, blending traditional ink-wash aesthetics with 3D animation. Its 2025 success helped push China’s animation box office past 25 billion yuan — about half of the entire year’s ticket sales.

Pop Mart’s Labubu. The flagship IP of designer-toy giant Pop Mart generated 14.16 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in sales in 2025, up 365% year-on-year — roughly 38% of the company’s revenue. Overseas revenue surged 292% to 16.27 billion yuan, with the Americas alone up 748%. Pop Mart went from 72 stores in the US to a planned 100+ in 2026. (China Daily confirms the numbers)

Together they prove the two poles of Chinese IP going global: a $2B blockbuster built on mythology, and a $2B collectible built on design. Film, and toy. Story, and object.

5. Why this matters for collectors and travelers

If you follow Chinese IPs, this data isn’t just trivia — it changes how you should navigate them.

For collectors: Designer toys are the highest-awareness category (91%), meaning the global market is crowded and still growing. Early IPs like Molly, Dimoo, Skullpanda and Hirono have huge regional fanbases, while newer stars like Labubu went global almost overnight. Pop Mart’s lineup now has 6 IPs each doing over 2 billion yuan, and 17 doing over 100 million. Knowing which IPs have genuine cultural depth — versus pure hype — is the edge.

For travelers: The IPs driving this wave are rooted in real, visitable places. The Ne Zha myth and the Fengshen (Investiture of the Gods) legends, the wuxia worlds, the historical figures — the themes that most attract global audiences (fantasy, wuxia, history) are exactly the ones you can experience in china’s temples, old towns, and cultural parks. Our IP pilgrimage itinerary maps those places into a real route.

An IP is the hook. The deeper story — and the place you can actually go see it — is the soul. And right now, the whole world is being pulled in by that hook.

Sources

• BCG Report, “The Rise of Chinese IPs” (June 2026)
• China Economic Net: How Chinese IPs build global pop-culture power
• Xinhua: How China’s IPs turn cultural roots into global appeal
• China Daily: Pop Mart posts revenue, profit jump in 2025
• Xinhua: Ne Zha 2 box office rises to No. 4 all-time
• CGTN: Beyond Ne Zha success, China’s animation goes global
• Xinhua: Ne Zha 2 wins top prize at Hundred Flowers Awards