How Pop Its, the TikTok Sensation, Became the Toy of the Pandemic

On a recent Saturday, 11-year-old Madison O’Keefe went on a hunt. According to a TikTok video, The Learning Express and The Teaching Room, a toy store in Morristown, N.J., carried dozens of varieties of Pop Its, fidget toys that mimic the sensation of popping bubble wrap and come in strawberry, avocado and unicorn shapes.

Madison already owned 145 fidget toys, which are tools often used by therapists. To grow her collection and find ones that her friends didn’t have, she dragged her mom almost 30 minutes from her home in Succasunna, N.J., to the store where displays stacked with fidgets ranged from 99 cents to $30. She bought two $5 surprise bags filled with an assortment of Pop Its and other fidget toys such as sticky elastic string called Monkey Noodles; squishy Nee Doh Balls, and squeezable Edamame Pods.

“They’re really entertaining and satisfying to play with,” she said. With her new haul, she planned to create videos for her private TikTok account and then trade them with friends. “They’re really popular,” she said. Plus, she added, “it helps release stress.”

Pop Its have exploded in popularity over the past year, driven by a combination of pandemic stress and viral TikTok videos. Clips of Pop Its are proliferating across the platform, with #fidgettoys driving 12.5 billion views as of the middle of August, turning what their makers and sellers thought would be a fleeting trend into a social-media fueled obsession that seems to be sticking.

“Nothing has ever lasted this long,” said Jamie Glassberg, a co-owner of Top Trenz, a toy company based out of Ronkonkoma, N.Y., that produces a variety of such poppable fidgets called OMG! Pop Fidgety! “You would think that it would slow down but it’s not at all.”