Who has the most followers on TikTok: global and UK lists

The person who has the most followers on TikTok is Khaby Lame, with about 163 million on 1 November 2026, ahead of Charli D’Amelio on 160.3 million and MrBeast on 145.3 million. This list from ProfileTree, the Belfast digital marketing agency, also names the most followed creators in the UK, Ireland and Northern Ireland, which global rankings usually leave out.

Most people asking this question want a name and a figure, and both are in the table below. Business owners will get more from the second half of the page, which looks at what these accounts did to grow and how a company with a modest budget can copy the habits that matter. That is the part of TikTok that ProfileTree’s social media marketing Belfast team works on with clients, because a few hundred local followers who buy are worth more to a business than a million who never will.

The most followers on TikTok accounts worldwide

Khaby Lame has held first place since June 2022, and only three accounts on the platform have passed 100 million followers. The table compares individual people, so platform, sports and band accounts are left out.

These counts were read from a live follower tracker on 1 November 2026 and checked against a public list of the most followed TikTok accounts that was last updated in September 2026. TikTok’s own account has about 96.5 million followers, FIFA World Cup about 84.4 million and BTS about 81.0 million, and all three would sit inside the top 10 if organisations and bands were counted.

The biggest change this year is in third place. MrBeast had about 141 million followers in mid-September and more than 145 million by the start of November, while Khaby Lame and Charli D’Amelio each added fewer than 400,000 over the same weeks. If that pace continued, he would reach the top two in well under a year, although a gap of 15 million followers is a long way to close on any platform.

Khaby Lame

Khabane Lame (@khaby.lame) built his following during the 2020 lockdowns by silently mocking overcomplicated life-hack videos. He took first place from Charli D’Amelio on 22 June 2022, and his comedy uses no words, so it works for viewers in every country at once.

Each video follows the same short structure, with the silly hack, a deadpan look at the camera and the obvious fix. That consistency teaches viewers what to expect and helps the algorithm (the system that decides which videos each user sees) work out who to show it to. His follower count has barely moved this year, so his lead now rests on the audience he built between 2020 and 2022.

Charli D’Amelio

Charli D’Amelio held the top spot from March 2020 until June 2022 and was the first TikTok user to pass 100 million followers in 2020. She grew through dance routines that other users copied, and the copies spread her name further.

Her account shows the advantage of arriving early. Creators who built audiences in 2019 and 2020 faced less competition, and the same advantage returns on a smaller scale each time TikTok launches a new feature or format. Her following later supported a reality series, a clothing line and brand partnerships, which is how a large audience turns into income.

MrBeast

MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson) brought his YouTube audience to TikTok by cutting his long challenge videos into short clips that show the payoff in the first second. He is the fastest-growing account in the top three by a wide margin.

The method transfers to a small business even though the budget does not. His team tests titles and opening shots on YouTube and reuses the versions that hold attention. Most business accounts post without ever comparing which videos produced results, and that one habit of testing is what separates the accounts that grow from those that stall.

The rest of the global top 10

Bella Poarch became one of the most followed creators within a year, largely through one lip-sync video in 2020, and she had enough content planned to keep the new viewers. Addison Rae grew through dance and moved into music and film. Willie Salim, an Indonesian creator known for giving money and food away on camera, has climbed into sixth, and Zach King’s short video illusions have kept him near the top since the app’s early years.

Dwayne Johnson and Will Smith are the only traditional film stars in the top 10. Both earned their places by following trends and making duets (a TikTok video recorded side by side with another user’s clip), so viewers see them taking part in the platform. Corporate accounts that post polished advertisements tend to get the opposite reaction, and the same lesson applies to a business account of any size.

The most followed TikTok creators in the UK and Ireland

The biggest creators in the UK and Ireland have audiences a fraction of the size of the global top 10, and their routes to growth are far closer to what a local business can achieve. Several of them built their followings on local humour, accents and family life, which travelled further than anyone expected.

Most followed TikTokers in the UK

Kyle Thomas leads the UK, with about 35.3 million followers. He was born in Kent, went to school in Lisburn and is now based in Belfast, and his videos mix his rescue and exotic animals with comedy and food reviews. He has appeared in a Channel 4 documentary and in a BBC Three and BBC Northern Ireland series about building a zoo, and he has written a book about his pet meerkat, Mylo. The UK’s most followed TikTok creator therefore runs his work from Northern Ireland.

Jeremy Lynch grew to about 27 million followers with football freestyling, transitions and comedy. With his partner in the F2Freestylers, he also built a large YouTube channel, and the two platforms feed each other.

Shauni Kibby reached about 18 million followers by starting with toy unboxing and widening into daily life and challenges once her audience trusted her. Abby Roberts, a makeup artist from Leeds, drew about 15 million followers with special effects looks that teach the technique as they entertain. Evie-Meg Field built about 15 million followers with honest videos about living with Tourette’s syndrome, which later led to a book deal.

Most followed TikTokers in Northern Ireland

Joel Mawhinney is the biggest TikTok creator from Northern Ireland, with more than 15 million followers. The County Down magician turned short magic tricks into a global audience and then into a BBC One series and a book, and his reveals suit a format where viewers decide within seconds whether to keep watching.

Emma White, a singer from Derry, has about 3.4 million followers and writes songs that other users can sing along to in their own duets, so each duet introduces her to a new audience. Emma Kearney grew a following through makeup tutorials and family videos, then opened her own beauty salon in Newry. Sophy Grier, a singer from County Antrim, posted videos from her car and her workplace during the pandemic, and one clip reached about 9 million views. None of them waited for a studio or a crew before they started.

Most followed TikTokers in the Republic of Ireland

Victoria Adeyinka leads the Republic of Ireland, with about 14 million followers, earned since 2019 through comedy sketches from Drogheda that often feature her mother. The family element makes her videos easy to share, and business accounts get the same benefit when they show the people behind the company.

Cairde, a group of seven Irish dancers, reached about 3 million followers by filming traditional dance in modern settings, and one of their videos approached 90 million views. Tadhg Fleming built about 3 million followers with family comedy that puts his own twist on popular trends. Keilidh Cashel, a makeup artist from Monaghan, grew to about 2.7 million followers and launched her own makeup brand, while Miriam Mullins from Cork reached about 2.2 million with sketches about the Irish mammy.

Why follower counts differ between trackers

Different websites give different follower counts because each one reads the figures on a different day, counts different types of accounts, and refreshes on its own schedule. None of them is necessarily wrong, but a figure without a date tells you very little.

Timing is the largest cause. A public list updated in mid-September 2026 put MrBeast on 140.9 million, while a live tracker showed 145.3 million at the start of November, and both readings were accurate on the day they were taken. Accounts that are growing quickly can move by millions between one ranking and the next.

The definition of an account is the second cause. Rankings that include TikTok’s own profile, football clubs and bands push every individual creator down several places, and rankings that exclude them, as this page does, produce a different order from the same data. Third-party trackers also check profiles on a schedule, so a weekly tracker always trails what you see on the profile itself. If you plan to quote a figure in a pitch or a campaign plan, name the source and the date and check the live profile first. Instagram’s leaderboard shows the same problem, and our list of the most followed Instagram accounts covers the leading accounts on that platform.

How UK adults use TikTok, according to Ofcom

Follower rankings say nothing about whether TikTok suits a UK business, and Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report, published on 10 December 2025, is more useful for that decision. TikTok was visited by 56 per cent of UK online adults in May 2025, about 27.3 million people, and its monthly audience grew by 14 per cent in a year.

The time people spend matters as much as the reach. Ofcom found that TikTok users spent an average of 28 minutes a day on the service, rising to 49 minutes among users aged 18 to 34, and that 55 per cent of TikTok’s UK users are women. Reddit reached more people, 60 per cent of UK internet users, and overtook TikTok as the fourth most visited social media service, yet Reddit users averaged four minutes a day.

For a company weighing up the platform, the figures show that TikTok holds attention for a long time within an audience that leans young and female. If your customers are older buyers in other businesses, those figures suggest putting your effort into other channels first, and our guide to social media platforms for UK small businesses compares them by audience. The full set of user, engagement and advertising figures is in our collection of TikTok statistics for the UK.

What the biggest TikTok accounts teach a business

The habits behind these accounts transfer to a business, while their budgets and their luck do not. Every creator on this page posted often while growing and settled early on one format, and most of them open each video with its most interesting moment. ProfileTree is a Belfast web design and digital marketing agency, founded in 2011 and based at the McSweeney Centre, and the advice below is what we give business owners who ask whether TikTok is worth their time.

“A short video is the fastest way to show a customer who they are dealing with, and for a local business in Belfast that is worth more than any follower count,” says Ciaran Connolly, founder of ProfileTree. “Keep it short and true, with a real person in front of the camera. That is the brief behind most of the social media marketing ProfileTree does for Northern Ireland businesses.”

Three content formats that keep growing

Across the global and regional lists, three types of video keep appearing in the fastest-growing accounts. Each one has a direct equivalent for a business.

The first is the silent demonstration. Khaby Lame needs no words, and a business can do the same with before-and-after footage, process clips and product demonstrations that make sense with the sound off, which matters because many people scroll in public places.

The second teaches while it entertains. Abby Roberts shows the technique behind each look and Joel Mawhinney hints at how a trick works, which builds trust and keeps people watching to the end. For trades, consultants and other expert businesses this is the format that most often turns viewers into enquiries, because it shows the skill a customer is paying for.

The third is relatable people. Victoria Adeyinka’s sketches with her mother and Miriam Mullins’ Irish mammy succeed because viewers recognise themselves. For a company, the equivalent is footage of the team at work and honest reactions to the jobs that go well and the ones that do not.

This short guide from ProfileTree’s own YouTube channel covers how to set up and start posting as a business:

Why follower numbers are a weak measure for brands

For a brand, the number of followers matters less than how many of the right people watch and then get in touch. TikTok’s For You page (the main feed, which shows each user videos chosen by the algorithm) recommends videos based largely on how viewers respond to them, so an account with a few thousand followers can reach far more people than its follower count suggests.

The brand accounts that do well share a voice before anything else. A language learning app with an owl mascot and several airlines have built large audiences by joking about themselves and reacting quickly to trends, and none of that depends on a large budget. Once you know which two or three formats carry your voice, good filming makes them work harder, and ProfileTree’s video production Belfast team films that kind of short content for local businesses.

Planning TikTok content for your business

The next step for a business is a short plan built around the questions your customers already ask. Film ten to fifteen short videos that answer them, post three to five a week for about 90 days, and track which videos lead to website visits and enquiries before deciding which formats to keep.

Local references help a business account reach the people who can buy from it. A Belfast plumber explaining problems common in Victorian terraces, or a Derry accountant covering tax relief for local manufacturers, will reach a smaller audience than a global creator, and a far more useful one.

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