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Pixomatic Team
11 min read
Feb 19, 2020
At the end of 2019, Instagram started testing out removing one of its key features: the like button. Don’t worry, it’s not completely gone! You can still like photos to your heart’s content, but the number of likes for photos will no longer be visible to the public. Only you will be able to see how many likes your post got. It’s no surprise that this brought a lot of controversy, especially for Instagram influencers. But the change is still in the testing phase, which means a lot of people still can see likes until the change is finalized. Until then, why don’t we take a trip down memory lane and look at some of Instagram’s records and milestones?
All-Time Most Liked Photos
To get yourself on the list of most liked photos of all time on Instagram, you need at least 10 million likes on an image. This number isn’t easy to get even if you’re famous. Some photos have remained as the all-time most liked photos for a few years already.
Let’s look at how the top 10 list plays out.
#10
Kylie Jenner is opening the top 10 list with the photo of herself and boyfriend Travis Scott. The photo was posted in September 2019 and since then has just over 14 million likes. The photo was taken just about a month before the couple split in October after dating for nearly three years.
#9
Number 9 on the list is a photo of Selena Gomez on a boat in Italy with 14.5 million likes. The photo is just a beautiful portrait of Gomez smiling during her vacation with the warm sunlight shining on her.
#8
The next most liked photo is, well, Selena Gomez again. Both images are almost identical with their amount of likes, but the selfies of Selena with her friends in this post outnumber the previous photo by a little bit.
#7
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is #7 on the list with 14.7 million likes on a photo of him and his wife taken during their wedding. The newlywed couple shared the photo with a beautiful Hawaiian sunset in the summer of of 2019.
#6
The 6th most liked Instagram photo of all-time is also the only post from 2020 on the top 10 list. It's a photo posted by retired basketball player Lebron James to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant who tragically passed away this January. The photo reached 15.5 million likes within a few weeks.
#5
Opening the top 5 list is an eco-friendly organization ten tree which promised to plant trees based on how many likes the photo reached. The post got over 15.7 million likes which equals at least 500k trees to be planted. The account has promised likers that they will soon show the progress update of the planted trees in an upcoming post.
#4
Have you missed Friends? A lot of people do! After almost 20 years since the show ended, the cast is still loved by millions. Jennifer Aniston's selfie with the retired co-stars brought in 15.8 million likes. This isn't the only groundbreaking number Aniston has reached on Instgram, keep reading to find out what other milestones she's reached.
#3
The third most liked photo of all time was posted by rapper XXX Tentacion in May 2018. The photo was the last post before his death and now stands at over 18.6 million likes. Later, the photo was announced as the cover for his last album “Skins”. The late rapper's photo is so impactful that it's constantly shifting from 2nd to 3rd place so don't be surprised when you see the number of likes changing.
#2
Just with a few thousand likes more, Kylie Jenner posted the second most liked photo on Instagram in February 2018. It was the first public image of her newborn daughter Stormi. Since Jenner had kept the pregnancy private the entire time, it’s not a surprise that the photo went viral instantly. You can only see Stormi blurred in the photo as she holds her mother's finger with her entire hand.
#1
So who’s in the lead with the #1 position? An epic photo of our galaxy? Kim Kardashian? The president? All good guesses, but ranking in first place with over 54 million likes is, well… a photo of an egg. @world_record_egg challenged everyone to break Kylie Jenner’s record by liking the photo of an egg instead, and it worked! Within a few days, the egg had nearly three times more likes than Jenner.
All-time Most Followed Instagrammers
Let’s look at the follower milestones as well while we’re at it.
#10
Starting the top 10 list is Brazillian footballer Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, or just Neymar as he mostly goes by. He has 133 million followers on the platform, which is also the highest number of followers for Brazil based on country.
#9
There must be a lot of single ladies following Beyonce, because she's next on the list with 141 million followers. It's interesting to note that Beyonce's account has so many followers and almost 2000 posts, but the star isn't following anyone.
#8
Footballers are quite popular on Instagram as it shows, the next most followed person is Leonell Messi with 143 million followers. The international footballer shares posts from his games along with important moments with his family.
#7
If you were waiting to hear the name of someone from the Kardashian family on this list, well the time is now. The 7th most followed Instagrammer is reality star Kim Kardashian West with 160 million followers. Besides fame, Kim has tried out different Instagram themes with her photos which are considered aesthetically pleasing by a lot of fans.
#6
The family legacy doesn't end there, there's actually another Kardashian who's passed Kim and has 162 million followers. It's none other than Kim's younger step sister Kylie Jenner. This isn't all too surprising since Kim has mostly been involved with her family in recent years, letting her step sisters Kylie and Kendall Jenner be more visible in the public eye.
#5
Selena Gomez is in the #5 spot with 168 million followers. She was actually the most followed Instagrammer for two years in a row before 2017 when others started passing her with follower counts. Nonetheless, Gomez is still a notable instagram user with notably a lot of likes and followers.
#4
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Sounds familiar? Besides being on the top liked photo list, "The Rock" is also the 4th most followed instagrammer.The actor and professional wrestler currently stands with 172 million followers.
#3
The most followed female on Instagram is singer Ariana Grande with 174 million followers. She soon became the third most followed Instagrammer after passing Selena Gomez and Dwayne Johhnson in 2019. This was mostly due to Ariana releasing several hit tracks while Selena was taking a break from social media.
#2
The most followed person is professional footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Why do we emphasize on person? You'll have to wait until we get to the #1 position for that. The Portuguese footballer has been the most followed non-brand account for nearly two years since he secured the #1 position in 2018. Ronaldo’s Instagram account currently stands with over 202 million followers.
As we mentioned, the most followed Instagram account of all time is, believe it or not, not even a person. It’s the official page for @instagram. It currently has 332 million followers and counting, out of the estimated 1 billion active users. It’s logical if you think about it, because the account was created way back when Instagram first launched in 2010, which is a whole decade already.
Million Milestones
Besides these, there are a few other Instagram milestones that have been recorded over the years. The first person to reach 1 million followers on an account and 1 million views on an Instagram video was Justin Bieber. The singer reached this milestone back in 2012 when he was only 18 years old and Instagram still had the old design. Does it feel nostalgic to you too?
Reaching a million followers isn’t so hard now, at least if you’re really loved by the public or a celebrity. In fact, the fastest time for a person to reach 1 million followers on Instagram was 5 hours. This milestone was reached by Friends star Jennifer Aniston in 2019. Just hours after she joined the social media platform she was already hitting records. At the end of the day, Aniston had already reached over 6 million followers.
So what does it take to break an Instagram record? Here are a few things you should consider.
- Be Famous. The majority of Instagram accounts that reach some sort of milestone are celebrities or public figures. This is probably not surprising news because the more public exposure you have, the more people are likely to be interested in your social media.
- Go Viral. You can become an Instagram hit by doing something so bizarre that it goes viral. Take the world record egg as an example. The owner of the profile isn’t a celeb nor is the photo extremely fantastic, they just had a lot of luck going viral. It’s less likely to happen than being famous, but you still have a fighting chance.
- Just Have Fun. Like counts are going to disappear any day now, so your numbers are pretty much not going to have any more value soon. Just enjoy a healthy time on the social media platform by sharing whatever photos make you happy. This is what Instagram wants in the long run as well.
