The Great Lock In of 2025

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About

The Great Lock In of 2025, also known simply as the Lock In Trend, refers to a mass movement of people "locking in" or getting "locked in" in the last months of 2025, starting in August 2025. The Great Lock In was advertised and discussed on TikTok. Participants were supposed to focus and grind during the time period to improve their lives, often related to financial stability, romantic fulfillment or career growth. Memes and viral videos about The Great Lock In often use NBA highlights as a visual backing.

Origin

On August 5th, 2025, TikToker^[1] @shmeat27 posted a video with NBA highlights and the caption, "The type performance me and bro went on Aug-Oct 2025 (This post is from the future)," gaining over 86,500 likes in two weeks (shown below).

@shmeat27 Ts was legendary take me back😭 #fyp #typeshyt #shmeat27 ♬ Skrilla – Kodak Black

On August 7th, TikToker^[2] @shmeat27 posted another video that added to the concept, which again used NBA highlights and used a similar caption that read, "How gang was moving Nov-Jan after the great 2025 Aug-Oct lock in (Leaked footage from the future)." Over 12 days, the video received over 27,700 likes (shown below).

@shmeat27 gng went into 2026 on a generational run i swear🤞🏼 #fyp #typeshyt #shmeat27 ♬ Top Off – Gunna

Spread

In the following days, others posted videos about The Great Lock In as the movement continued to spread online in August 2025.

For instance, on August 9th, 2025, TikToker^[3] @ezpickenss posted an edit of basketball star LeBron James, captioned, "How we moving for the great lock in of Aug-Dec 2025," gaining over 776,000 likes in 10 days (shown below).

@ezpickenss 4th quarter. Tie ball game. #real #trending #lebron #relatable #drake #foryou #viral #lockin #fyp ♬ original sound – new9ra

Also on August 9th, TikToker^[5] @meechiexx posted a video of himself talking about The Great Lock In of late 2025, gaining over 34,900 likes in 10 days (shown below).

@meechiexx It is upon us ladies and gentlemen #fyp #xyzbca #real ♬ Slowest Stargazing – Marcelo De Carvalho

On August 10th, 2025, TikToker^[4] @.nickhalden posted a similar video, using an edit of LeBron James with the caption, "Getting ready for the great lock in of late 2025 (September – December)," gaining over 114,800 likes in nine days.

On August 14th, Twitter / X ^[6] user @millerlitekirk tweeted, "The great lock in of August-December 2025 will be talked about for generations by my children and their children," gaining over 4,700 likes in five days (shown below).

A "tweet":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/twitter-x joking about the "The Great Lock In of 2025," which originally went viral on "TikTok":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/tiktok in August 2025.

On August 16th, 2025, X^[7] user @quinnslcm tweeted, "I don't think you understand how serious the great lock in from August to December 2025 is." He continued, "You can feel it in your bones, the air starts tasting different, there's a restlessness in your soul that knows something is shifting. 2016 all over again." The tweet received over 12,000 likes in three days (shown below).