Who has the most followers on Instagram?
As of October 13, 2026, the most followed account on Instagram is Instagram's own account (@instagram), with 686,600,509 followers. The most followed person on Instagram is Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano), with 680.2M followers.
Look down the list and the same groups show up again and again: football players, pop singers, actors and reality TV stars. A few brands make it too, like Nike and National Geographic.
The top 10 most followed Instagram accounts
These are the ten biggest accounts on Instagram today. The top five alone have 2.67B followers between them.
- Instagram (@instagram), 686.6M followers. The app's own account. It shares work from creators and news about new features.
- Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano), 680.2M followers. Portuguese footballer, and the first person to reach 1 billion followers across all his social apps.
- Lionel Messi (@leomessi), 517.8M followers. Argentine footballer. He won the World Cup with Argentina in 2022.
- Selena Gomez (@selenagomez), 402.8M followers. American singer and actress, and the most followed person on Instagram until 2018.
- Dwayne Johnson (@therock), 380.8M followers. Actor and former wrestler.
- Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner), 380.6M followers. Reality TV star and founder of Kylie Cosmetics.
- Ariana Grande (@arianagrande), 362.4M followers. American singer and actress.
- Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian), 343.7M followers. Reality TV star and founder of the SKIMS brand.
- Beyoncé (@beyonce), 298.8M followers. American singer.
- Khloé Kardashian (@khloekardashian), 291.4M followers. Reality TV star.
Most followed people on Instagram, by group
Here is who leads each group today. It is the same live count as the table.
- Celebrities. The most followed celebrities on Instagram are Cristiano Ronaldo (680.2M), Lionel Messi (517.8M), Selena Gomez (402.8M), Dwayne Johnson (380.8M) and Kylie Jenner (380.6M).
- Women. The most followed women are Selena Gomez (402.8M), Kylie Jenner (380.6M) and Ariana Grande (362.4M).
- Men. The most followed men are Cristiano Ronaldo (680.2M), Lionel Messi (517.8M) and Dwayne Johnson (380.8M).
- Athletes. The most followed athletes on Instagram are Cristiano Ronaldo (680.2M), Lionel Messi (517.8M) and Virat Kohli (271.4M). The most followed soccer player is Cristiano Ronaldo.
- Musicians. The most followed singers and rappers are Selena Gomez (402.8M), Ariana Grande (362.4M) and Beyoncé (298.8M).
- Actors. The most followed actors are Dwayne Johnson (380.8M), Zendaya (178.5M) and Kevin Hart (171.9M).
- Brands. The most followed brands are Instagram (686.6M), Nike (291.0M) and National Geographic (268.4M).
- Sports clubs and leagues. Real Madrid (181.1M) and FC Barcelona (149.0M) lead the sports accounts.
How the top spot changed over time
Selena Gomez was the most followed person on Instagram for about two years. In October 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo passed her by a hair: 144.4 million followers against her 144.3 million.
Ronaldo is still the most followed person today, with 680.2M followers. That is several times what he had when he took the top spot.
In September 2024, Ronaldo became the first person to reach 1 billion followers across all his social apps combined. Instagram is the biggest part of that total.
Only one account sits above him: Instagram's own. It is the most followed account on the app, but it is a brand, not a person.
How this list works
- Live counts, once a day. Every day we read the public follower count of each account we track. We use the same lookup as our free Instagram follower count checker.
- Ranked by that day's number. The order on this page comes from the counts, not from an old list.
- Exact, not rounded. Profiles show "686M". The table shows every digit, plus the change since the day before.
- A wide net. We track more accounts than the 50 we show, so an account that climbs fast still appears.
Accounts sometimes change their username. When a handle changes, it drops out of one day's reading until we update it. If you spot a gap, tell us and we will fix it.
Why do the biggest accounts keep growing?
Big accounts get shown to new people all the time. Fans of a football club see its players. People who follow one singer get suggested another. So the top of the list grows by millions every month, and the order changes slowly.
For a normal account, growth works the other way round. Nobody gets suggested to strangers until their posts earn it. Our guide on how to get more followers on Instagram covers what works at the start, and Instagram statistics has the bigger picture: users, countries and Reels.
Check any account's live count
This list covers the top 50. For any other public account, including your own, the free follower count checker shows the exact live number. Want the TikTok side? See the most followed TikTok accounts.