The most liked Instagram post ever is a gallery of Lionel Messi celebrating Argentina’s World Cup victory. The player garnered over 65 million likes within hours of uploading it, and the number is growing. In the World Cup final on Sunday in Qatar, Argentina defeated France on penalties for their first championship in 36 years. Messi’s Instagram photo broke the previous record, which was held by a straightforward image of an egg, by receiving millions more likes.
The previous holder of the most-liked status was indeed an egg.
When it first appeared it seemed to be some kind of protest vote against celebrity – people were urged to engage with the picture in the hope of toppling the then-record holder, Kylie Jenner.
The make-up mogul previously took the record for her 2018 photo announcing her baby Stormi, which has since collected 18 million likes.
Jenner was the first woman to get 300 million followers on the social media site – a milestone also achieved by Messi.
There was a lot of speculation about who was behind the @world_record_egg Instagram account and how it managed to attract so many likes so quickly.
Some said it was a marketing ploy from a large company that had bought followers – but British advertising executive Chris Godfrey has since claimed he created it, along with two others, and that their sole purpose was to get as many likes as possible.
But while the egg overtook Jenner’s record – 57 million and counting – it has finally been surpassed by a rival with several world records in his own right: Lionel Messi.
After the World Cup final, Guinness World Records posted a series of records broken by the victor, noting Messi had surpassed Germany’s Lothar Matthäus for the record of most World Cup matches played, with 26 – as well as four other records:
- 11 – most World Cup Man of the Match awards
- 19 – most World Cup appearances as captain
- 5 – most appearances in World Cup tournaments by a male player
- First person to assist (a goal) at five different World Cups
With the success of his latest gallery on Instagram, Messi has yet another record to add to his collection.
