Instagram has reached the 1 billion monthly active users mark, and more than 500 million people are using the platform daily. 

But what makes an Instagram post popular? Yep, you guessed it: Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, babies, and deceased rappers.*

In this article, you’ll learn all about the top 20 most liked Instagram photos and the story behind the most liked Instagram picture ever.

I’ll see you on the other side.

* If you’re not a fan of Selena Gomez or Kylie Jenner, proceed with caution.

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20. Selena Gomez: A Selfie  

Owner: Selena Gomez

Date Posted: April 5, 2019

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Account Name: @selenagomez

On the 20th spot in our list we have a simple selfie by Selena Gomez. This post shows us the power of a selfie, if you’ve got a following as strong as Selena’s.

19. A Photo of an Egg with a Slight Crack

Owner: Chris Godfrey

Date Posted: January 18, 2019

Account Name: @world_record_egg

The 19th most liked Instagram photo features an egg with a slight crack in it.

To be fair, that’s pretty much all anyone knew about the mysterious World Record Egg Instagram account when this post was shared.

After the original post of an egg went viral, the Instagram profile began sharing a series of photos that gradually showed the egg cracking.

This was the first of those posts and it generated a huge amount of engagement, despite the lack of caption or explanation.

The series of photos culminated in a video that racked up 20.5 million views and revealed that streaming service Hulu has partnered with the egg to raise awareness around mental health issues.

The final video and now the Instagram account actively promote the website talkingegg.info which details where people can find help for mental health conditions in many different countries.

I think we can all agree that this viral sensation was eggstremely eggciting.

18. Ronaldo’s Family Christmas

Owner: Cristiano Ronaldo

Date Posted: December 24, 2018

Account Name: @cristiano

View this post on Instagram

Feliz Natal! Merry Christmas!🎅🎄❤️

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on

On Christmas Eve in 2018, Ronaldo shared this whimsical photo of his family dressed in Santa hats.

Captioned “Merry Christmas” in both Portuguese and English, the photo was an instant hit and rocketed up to become the 18th most liked photo on Instagram.

Now, is it just me, or does the Christmas joy expressed increase as you look at the faces from left to right?

17. Ariana Grande’s Tribute to Mac Miller

Owner: Ariana Grande

Date Posted: September 8, 2018

Account Name: @arianagrande

Pop singer Ariana Grande met rapper Mac Miller way back in 2012 and the couple revealed their relationship in 2016.

The relationship came to an end at the beginning of 2018, only for Miller to die unexpectedly a few months later in September 2018.

News of Miller’s death shocked both fans and the music industry, and many stars paid tribute to the rapper.

Grande didn’t include a caption and the comments are turned off.

However, a week after this post, Grande shared another Instagram tribute to Miller. The post featured a video of Mac Miller laughing and wearing a black sweatshirt bearing the words “Everything will be okay.”

In the post’s caption, Grande calls Miller “my dearest friend” and writes, “I adored you from the day I met you when I was nineteen and always will…  I can’t believe you’re not here anymore.”

16. Kylie Jenner’s Daughter Dressed for Halloween 

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: October 27, 2019

Account Name: @kyliejenner

Stormi dressed up as her mother’s famous outfit at the Met Gala in 2019.

Let’s be honest. Stormi wins this one.

15. Kylie and Stormi 

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: March 1, 2018

Account Name: @kyliejenner

View this post on Instagram

my angel baby is 1 month old today

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on

This photo celebrates one month since Stormi’s birth.

It’s such a special occasion that Jenner writes far more than usual saying, “my angel baby is 1 month old today.”

We can’t see Stormi’s face in the photo, but she does appear to be wearing an incredibly cute onesie.

Jenner is dressed in her standard Fall camouflage gear – which makes no sense because this image was posted in Spring.

14. Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr. 

Owner: Tom Holland

Date Posted: August 22, 2019

Account Name: @tomholland2013

View this post on Instagram

We did it Mr Stark!

A post shared by Tom Holland (@tomholland2013) on

This is Tom Holland’s only appearance in the top 20 most liked photos of Instagram. We see him hanging out with MCU co-star Robert Downey Jr.

Fans are clearly not holding back their love for the two co-stars hanging out together.

13. Kylie’s Birthday Post for Travis Scott

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: April 30, 2019

Account Name: @kyliejenner

Kylie’s back on the list, and this time she’s celebrating Travis Scott’s birthday.

12. Justin Bieber Gets Engaged

Owner: Justin Bieber

Date Posted: July 9, 2018

Account Name: @justinbieber

The twelfth most liked Instagram photo features pop singer Justin Bieber announcing his engagement to model Hailey Baldwin.

And unlike Kylie Jenner, the Biebs is a fan of long captions – this one is almost 250 words.

In it, he proclaims his love for Baldwin, writing, “Hailey I am sooooo in love with everything about you! So committed to spending my life getting to know every single part of you loving you patiently and kindLY… My heart is COMPLETELY and FULLY YOURS and I will ALWAYS put you first!”

The engagement announcement came after a twelve-week romance and nearly a decade of friendship.

A few months later in September 2019, the couple got married in New York at a lower Manhattan courthouse.

11. Kylie Jenner’s Daughter Snowboarding 

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: December 6, 2019

Account Name: @kyliejenner

View this post on Instagram

I can’t handle this 😫😍❄️🏂

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on

Stormi steals the spotlight again. This time Kylie Jenner shows off her daughter Stormi’s adorable snowboarding skills.

10. Kylie & Her Family 

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: April 26, 2019

Account Name: @kyliejenner

View this post on Instagram

happy end game everyone

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on

Kylie Jenner is back on the list with a post of her family dressed up as Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Thor. With all the excitement surrounding Avengers: Endgame, we get why this post made it to our top 20 list.

9. Kylie Jenner & Travis Scott

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: September 10, 2019

Account Name: @kyliejenner

View this post on Instagram

When Houston meets LA .. 💛 @playboy #ComingSoon

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on

On the ninth place in our list, we have Kylie Jenner again. This time accompanied by rapper partner, Travis Scott. We all know that Kylie is no stranger to a bikini picture, but in this Instagram post she’s entirely naked. Well, in a cowboy hat.

Her Playboy photo garnered over 12 million likes in a matter of hours, and now is up to 14 million likes.

8. Selena Gomez in Florence 

Owner: Selena Gomez

Date Posted: September 10, 2019

Account Name: @selenagomez

Selena’s back on our list. This time it’s a beautiful shot from her trip to Italy, where she was on vacation celebrating her 27th birthday. Selena started the trip in Rome and moved south to the Amalfi Coast with her friends.

Selena captioned the photo, “Me, Italy -trying desperately to look like a Fellini film.”

7. Selena Gomez With Her Friends 

Owner: Selena Gomez

Date Posted: February 11, 2019

Account Name: @selenagomez

And Selena’s back again. The superstar and her crew took a bachelorette trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

She captioned the picture, “My best friend is getting married, so we celebrated her! Future Mrs. Lopez.”

Selena shared a series of snaps of her and her besties soaking up the sun on the beach, living her best, most Instagrammable life.

6. Dwayne Johnson’s Wedding

Owner: Dwayne Johnson

Date Posted: August 19, 2019

Account Name: @therock

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson surprised fans all over the world when he revealed he had married his long-term girlfriend Lauren Hashian. The private ceremony took place in Hawaii in August 2019.

Dwayne also revealed how he managed to keep his high-profile wedding a secret. He shared that everything for the wedding was created by hand, by staff and family only, which helped him carry out his goal of complete privacy.

It’s worth to mention that The Rock has one of the most followed Instagram accounts, with a whopping 167 million followers (and still counting).

5. Jennifer Aniston and Her Friends 

Owner: Jennifer Aniston

Date Posted: October 15, 2019

Account Name: @jenniferaniston

Okay get ready for this one. Jennifer Aniston set a Guinness World Record when she joined Instagram in early October 2019, setting the time for the fastest Instagram account to reach 1 million followers. Her account reached 1 million followers in only five hours and 16 minutes. The record was previously held by royals Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, with the launch of their @sussexroyal account.

Aniston’s appearance on social media made news all around the world with her fans and many of her celebrity friends, including castmates who took to their social media accounts to welcome her to the social media platform.

Although she had just joined Instagram, she mastered the platform pretty quickly when she shared her debut selfie with the cast of Friends, making her photo the 5th most liked picture on Instagram.

4. Plant Trees on Earth Week

Owner: tentree

Date Posted: October 15, 2019

Account Name: @tentree

View this post on Instagram

The World’s Most Sustainable Post ♻️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 5m likes – 500k trees ✔️ 20m likes – 1m trees ⏳ 50m likes – 🔒 100m likes – 🔒 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Join our mission to make the most sustainable post on the planet. Thank you to the millions of people who have lifted their fingers to start a movement to plant more trees. Together, we will be planting 500,000 trees in Indonesia as a result of you liking this post. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ But we're not stopping here. As the number of likes on this post grows, we will unlock a new level of sustainability and plant even more trees around the world! 🌲🌎 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

A post shared by tentree (@tentree) on

This Instagram profile is a newcomer to the list. At a time when the environment is a matter of huge concern, it comes as no surprise that this post made it to our top 20 most liked photos on Instagram.

The post itself is part of a venture to plant more trees, by promising to convert likes into trees.

What do you think? Will this post continue to get more likes in the future?

3. XXXTentacion First and Last Instagram Post

Owner: Jahseh Dwayne Ricardo Onfroy, AKA: XXXTentacion

Date Posted: May 19, 2018

Account Name: @xxxtentacion

View this post on Instagram

LOVE IS WAR

A post shared by MAKE OUT HILL (@xxxtentacion) on

The third most liked Instagram post comes from rapper XXXTentacion.

It was his first and only Instagram post before his unexpected death in June 2018. The 20-year-old died of a gunshot wound he received in a robbery at a motorcycle dealership in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

Bizarrely, XXXTentacion created a music video for his song “Sad” in which he attends his own funeral and the video was released after his death.

2. Kylie Jenner and Stormi’s Reign Ends

Owner: Kylie Jenner

Date Posted: February 6, 2018

Account Name: @kyliejenner

View this post on Instagram

stormi webster 👼🏽

A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on

This is Kylie Jenner’s seventh appearance in this list of the 20 most liked Instagram photos. And this post, in particular, held the top spot for quite a while before dropping to silver place.

The photo announces the birth of her daughter Stormi and reveals her surname: Webster. The name is taken from her father Travis Scott, whose real name is Jacques Webster.

1. The Most Liked Instagram Picture Ever: An Egg

Owner: Chris Godfrey

Date Posted: January 4, 2019

Account Name: @world_record_egg

Yep, the most liked Instagram picture ever is an egg.

This photo of an egg poached the top spot from Kylie Jenner by a long shot with almost 59 million likes – that’s nearly three times as many as the second most liked photo on Instagram.

The World Record Egg account began as a simple campaign to set the world record for the most liked photo on Instagram and went on to beat the previous world record set by Jenner.

Obviously, people loved the idea and scrambled to get on board.

The record-breaking egg even provoked a response from Jenner herself, captioned, “take that little egg.”

Summary

Here’s a quick round-up of the key facts:

  • The most liked Instagram picture ever is an egg and has a whopping 54 million likes.
  • The most liked Instagram picture ever has nearly three times as many likes as the second most liked Instagram photo of Kylie Jenner and her daughter Stormi, which has 18.7 million likes.
  • Seven of the 20 most liked Instagram photos are from Kylie Jenner.
  • Three of the 20 most like Instagram photos are from Selena Gomez.

Now, based on the themes featured throughout this list, here’s how to create a record-breaking Instagram post that will beat the egg and win the top spot:

First, get Cristiano Ronaldo to announce his engagement to his newly pregnant girlfriend on Christmas Eve while holding baby Stormi.

Then, make sure they’re all on a boat, holding eggs.

Instagram is a strange place.

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