Instagram: most popular posts as of 2022

Instagram’s most popular post

As of December 2022, the most popular post on Instagram was Lionel Messi and his teammates after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, posted by the account @leomessi. Messi's post, which racked up over 61 million likes within a day, knocked off the reigning post, which was 'Photo of an Egg'. Originally posted in January 2021, Photo of an Egg surpassed the world’s most popular Instagram post at that time, which was a photo by Kylie Jenner’s daughter totaling 18 million likes. After several cryptic posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself to be a part of a mental health campaign aimed at the pressures of social media use.

Instagram’s most popular accounts

As of February 2022, the official Instagram account @instagram had the most followers of any account on the platform, with 470.23 million followers. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had 401.2 million followers, and Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had 309.6 million, whilst Paris Saint-Germain F.C. striker Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had a total of 306.5 million. Celebrities such as The Rock, Selena Gomez, and Ariana Grande all had over 290 million followers each.

Instagram influencers

In the United States, the leading content category of Instagram influencers was lifestyle, with 15.25 percent of influencers creating lifestyle content in 2021. Music ranked in second place with 10.96 percent, followed by family with 8.24 percent. Having a large audience can be very lucrative: Instagram influencers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with over 90,000 followers made around 1,221 US dollars per post.

Instagram around the globe

Instagram’s worldwide popularity continues to grow, and India is the leading country in terms of number of users, with over 230 million users as of January 2022. The United States had 159.75 million Instagram users and Brazil had 119.45 million users. The social media platform was also very popular in Indonesia and Russia, with 99.15 and 63, respectively. As of October 2021, Instagram was the fourth most popular social network in the world, behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.