TikTok maintains its position as one of the globe’s premier social media sites, collecting fresh users in droves as its videos dominate viral trends.
Chances are, if you see a video circulating around the web, it originated on TikTok. The video-sharing site continues to serve as the go-to location for many people to catch weird and sometimes dangerous online trends, follow rising social media stars, and clue themselves into celebrity life.
With so many massive celebrities on the app, most people would expect the likes of Jack Black or Dwayne Johnson to boast the most followed TikTok account. Both celebs do boast impressive follower counts, but neither claim the title — nor does any well-known movie or television star. Instead, a TikTok staple from years back maintains at the top of TikTok’s mountain of users, with a truly staggering number of fans.
The most followed TikToker in 2023
The most popular TikTok accounts tend to vary year to year, as certain users experience ups and downs in their relevance. TikTok’s short-form format lends to a short attention span, which often means that users will experience a short period of massive virality, only to see their follower count plummet after a few weeks.
Such is not the case for TikTok’s most followed account. The illustrious title of “most followed TikToker” — in 2023, at least — goes to Khabane Lame, the utterly delightful creator known for taking aim at those overly complicated “life hack” videos. Via his TikTok page, which boasts a staggering 155.2 million followers, Lame is known for perfectly, and silently, poking fun at the unnecessarily complicated DIY fixes that currently saturate the web.
Lame’s silent style made him a TikTok staple back in 2020 and 2021, when his first wordless videos made their way onto FYP pages around the globe. He’s maintained a presence among the app’s top creators for months now, much longer than most users manage to sustain relevance, and keeps pumping out quality content on a near-daily basis. His videos typically come in the form of stiches, which see him pair his wit with the various offerings TikTok provides. He’s often found reacting to funny viral moments with silent comedy of his own, and his humor has branched out immensely since he cinched the top position on the site.
Lame has a cozy position at the top of TikTok’s creators, with a solid 5 million more viewers than Charli D’Amelio, who holds the number two spot. There’s a much broader gap between he and creators farther down the list, with more than 50 million followers separating him from Bella Poarch, who has 92.9 million followers, and Addison Rae, who has 88.8 million followers. The closest Hollywood celeb is Will Smith, who’s follower count currently stands at 73 million.