Who actually owns Instagram in 2025? It’s not about pretty pictures anymore it’s about international reach, cultural significance, and being able to take the reins in terms of leading conversations that move across platforms. From football heroes to beauty titans, the most followed accounts are a confluence of sporting supremacy, entertainment savvy, and branding brilliance.
Instagram’s billions have made the site a location where each post has the potential to become headline news. The most popular accounts aren’t merely posting selfies its owners are breaking records, setting trends, and curating their feeds into empires. Here’s a closer examination of the top ten accounts and why they’re everyone’s talk.
1. Instagram – 693 Million Followers
The platform itself is the victor, and the official account is a tastefully edited highlight reel of the most skilled creators, memes, and cultural heroes. It’s basically Instagram’s highlight reel, highlighting artists, influencers, and viral stars worldwide. By highlighting so many different voices, the account socializes Instagram and makes it a cultural repository.
2. Cristiano Ronaldo – 661 Million Followers
Cristiano Ronaldo is not only the most Instagrammed individual himself but also the first celebrity to have 1 billion followers in total. His feed is a blend of football action, home life, and sponsorship work that rewards him $60 million annually off the pitch. Ronaldo’s following is unprecedented more Instagram followers than there are total 2024 NBA All-Stars, and his individual posts garner tens of millions of likes, from heartfelt tributes to career achievements.
3. Lionel Messi – 506 Million Followers
Messa’s page is a football glory celebration, particularly his record-breaking 74 million likes for a post commemorating Argentina’s win of the 2022 World Cup the most-liked Instagram post in history. In addition to the moments of match days, Messi gives fans intimate looks into his Miami life and interaction with teammates, engaging them emotionally throughout his life journey.
4. Selena Gomez – 418 Million Followers
Selena Gomez seamlessly blurs the line between entertainment and the booming beauty brand, Rare Beauty, worth more than $2.7 billion. Her Facebooks slide smoothly through musical news, mental health tips, and product drops that tend to sell out in hours. Rare Beauty’s social approach, built around authenticity and diversity, is reflective of Gomez’s own social presence genuine, human, and very much invested in her base.
5. Kylie Jenner – 393 Million Followers
Kylie Jenner’s Instagram is equal parts family photo album and beauty empire showroom. She once had the most-liked photo on Instagram record for a selfie of her daughter Stormi, but was later beaten by the notoriety of the egg. Her Kylie Cosmetics brand is still a social media giant, and her feed continues to blend high-glam fashion with low-key family moments, engaging all of her fans.
6. Dwayne Johnson – 392 Million Followers
The Rock’s channel is a gold mine of inspiration, full of workout videos aplenty, movie trailers, and peeks into his life outside of acting. Johnson’s friendly tone and openness about failures make his channel more than a red-carpet parade of his life and work it’s a beacon of inspiration for millions who look up to his dedication and work ethic.
7. Ariana Grande – 374 Million Followers
Ariana Grande’s latest posts are all about her starring role in the new Wicked movie, with behind-the-scenes selfies with co-star Cynthia Erivo. Her combination of music, fashion, and film content keeps fans hooked in several fandoms, as her subtle captions allow the photos and her fame to speak for themselves.
8. Kim Kardashian – 356 Million Followers
Kim Kardashian’s Instagram is a class in branding. Whatever she’s marketing, whether it’s her $4 billion shapewear business SKIMS or dishing family news, she’s made her account both a lifestyle portfolio and marketing machine. SKIMS’ plus-size collection and multi-racial campaign reflect Kim’s own skill at connecting with a mass, global base of admirers.
9. Beyoncé – 310 Million Followers
Beyoncé’s Instagram echo her performances in levels of curation, with her latest posts being on her Cowboy Carter album. The campaign involved aggressive guerrilla marketing casting the cover of the album and the statement “This ain’t a country album. This is a ‘Beyoncé’ album” onto New York’s top museums’ roofs without permission. It was something that cemented her legacy for crossing boundaries between art and culture-making statements.
10. Khloé Kardashian – 302 Million Followers
Khloé Kardashian’s Instagram presents a more relaxed, family-friendly view of Kardashian-Jenner family life. While she will sometimes promote her brand such as Good American, her account is filled with unfiltered moments with her children and siblings, with followers experiencing a connection that is different from the super-glam environment of her sisters’ accounts.
The biggest Instagram accounts of 2025 aren’t just figures these are cultural landmarks. Each feed is a tale of strength, either by shattering sporting records, establishing the new vocabulary of beauty, or birthing global brands. In a time where attention is money, these ten accounts have perfected the game of keeping the world amazed.
