Messi Dethrones Egg as Instagram's Most-Liked Post

Matt Moen
Thu, 22 Dec 2022 16:11:39 +0000
Messi, Leo messi, World cup, Instagram, Social media, Most liked post, Viral, Egg, World record egg, Lionel messi

Fresh off Argentina's nail-biting World Cup victory last weekend, Lionel Messi has already added yet another title to his extensive list of accolades: having the most-liked post on Instagram.

Related | Lionel Messi is the G.O.A.T.

A pic of the soccer player holding the World Cup trophy over his head, along with an assortment of other shots taken from Argentina's down-to-the-wire final win over France, has officially become the most-liked post in the social media platform's history, racking up 10 million likes in the first 39 minutes after its posting. The post now has upwards of 71 million likes and counting as of this writing. Messi had previously overtaken a Louis Vuitton plug by Cristiano Ronaldo as being the most-liked post by an athlete within 16 hours of uploading.

See on Instagram

The record was previously held by a humble egg with big dreams of dethroning Kylie Jenner as Instagram's most popular image, garnering 56.1 million likes in the process. The @world_record_egg account featuring an unassuming stock photo of an egg went viral in 2019 for its world record aspirations, earning a $10 million valuation and becoming one of the year's top influencers along the way. With brands like GrubHub and Burberry looking to cash in on the moment, the egg would go on to inevitably jump the shark with a weirdly shoehorned PSA about mental health and a now-defunct directory of resources for followers.

While nowhere near as absurd as an egg, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise that Messi would have the most-liked post, given that he has the third most-followed account on the platform. In fact, Messi actually has multiple posts among Instagram's top 10, most of which are World Cup-related. Instagram's parent company Meta formally acknowledged Messi as the newest record holder in a story post, making it official.

Photo via Getty/ David Ramos