BTS Is the Top Fandom on Instagram, and Other Things You Liked in 2018
Instagram isn’t revealing data on the most-liked or most-followed accounts in 2018 like they did last year, but we do know some of the top trends on the platform, and we feel like we could have predicted a few of them.
For example, BTS “Army” was the top fandom community, which is no surprise to anyone who follows the K-pop sensation. (They had their biggest year ever, including collaborating with Nicki Minaj, addressing the United Nations, and hanging out with Vogue in Los Angeles.)
As for niche community trends, ASMR, the audio-sensory sensation from videos of soothing repetitive actions like slime-popping or soap-cutting, rose in popularity—Cardi B even got in on the trend with an ASMR video of her own.
It feels like a million years ago, but the biggest viral dance trend was the Drake-inspired #InMyFeelingsChallenge, which had celebrities from Ciara to Will Smith asking, “Kiki, do you love me?” Our personal favorite was the guys from the new Queer Eye breaking it down in their hotel room.
Instagram also tallied 2018’s top “advocacy hashtags,” with which people used the platform to join social movements including #MeToo (1.5 million), #TimesUp (597,000), and #MarchForOurLives (562,000).
And the “happiest geotagged location in the world,” aka the highest use of the 🙂 smiley emoji in captions: Disneyland Tokyo! (Check out the Disney-inspired fashion at Spring 2019 Tokyo Fashion Week.)
