Top Instagram influencers in the USA by followers growth in 2021

How many followers can an influencer attract in one year? We decided to count – and thus discover who is the ‘best of the best’ in terms of audience growth.

Our blog contains an article on top influencers to follow on Instagram – as well as a wide variety of other ‘tops’ in the category of top influencers (microinfluencers, lifestyle, content creators, travel, etc). The reader can thus find more information regarding these influencers.

In this case, we have only addressed new followers.

Who are the top Instagram influencers in the USA?

In trendHERO, we have collected large volumes of data regarding numbers of followers by date, for different types of profile. There are currently more than 90m profiles in our database.

For this piece of ‘mini-research’, we compared January and December, 2021, thereby producing this graph:

The top influencers were as follows:

1. Khloé Kardashian (@khloekardashian) — 139.6m + 74m followers
2. Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) — 228.1m + 62.9m followers
3. Jennifer Lopez (@jlo) — 147m + 45.6m followers
4. Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) — 152.8m + 44.5m followers
5. Kourtney Kardashian (@kourtneykardash) — 115.4m + 44.4m followers
6. Katy Perry (@katyperry) — 117.5m + 32.m followers
7. Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real) — 107.8m + 27.3m followers
8. Billie Eilish (@billieeilish) — 76.9m + 22.5m followers
9. Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) — 102.3m + 22.4m followers
10. Dua Lipa (@dualipa) — 61.9m + 16m followers
11. Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) — 7m + 14.2m followers
12. Snoop Dogg (@snoopdogg) — 56.5m + 10.4m followers

Influencers’ followers count history can be found via trendHERO, as below:

You may check one influencer free of charge.

We reviewed the first hundred profiles, and there were no new Instagram-content creators.

Many are familiar with the incredible success story of Khaby Lame. He started with checking up stupid lifehacks on TikTok. Like, “Does they clean a banana with knife?” or “You don’t need to break a cup if your mask is tied to it”. His specific gesture became a meme, and Khaby obtained 125m followers on that platform. He also converted this audience into 67m followers on Instagram.

Khaby Lame is based in Italy, however, and in the United States, there was no such success story in 2021. Most influencers are widely known without Instagram. Still, many celebrities now understand that they need to engage with their fans via social media. Indeed, social media have become part of our lives; perhaps opinion leaders from Instagram have simply merged with ‘real life’.

For the sake of clarity, we created three more ‘tops’, as follows:

• Actors
• Brands
• Singers

The top actors in the USA by Instagram-follower growth were as follows:

1. Kevin Hart (@kevinhart4real) — 107.8m + 27.3m followers
2. Olivia Rodrigo (@oliviarodrigo) — 7m + 14.2m followers
3. Megan Fox (@meganfox) — 10.7m + 7.5m followers
4. Will Smith (@willsmith) — 51.5m + 5.8m followers
5. Madelyn_Cline (@madelyncline) — 6.4m + 5.6m followers
6. Zac Efron (@zacefron) — 45.5m + 5.6m followers
7. Katherine Langford (@katherinelangford) — 19.2m + 5.2m followers
8. Millie Bobby Brown (@milliebobbybrown) — 42.6m + 4.9m followers
9. Timothée Chalamet (@tchalamet) — 12.6m + 4.5m followers
10. Chris Pratt (@prattprattpratt) — 30.5m + 4m followers
11. Sebastian Stan (@imsebastianstan) — 5.1m + 3.5m followers
12. Leonardo DiCaprio (@leonardodicaprio) — 48.6m + 3.4m followers

The top brands in the USA by Instagram-follower growth were as follows:

1. Nike (@nike) — 140.4m + 54.9m followers
2. NASA (@nasa) — 64.3m + 9m followers
3. NBA (@nba) — 54.9m + 8.1m followers
4. Marvel Entertainment (@marvel) — 53.3m + 7.2m followers
5. Marvel Studios (@marvelstudios) — 28.1m + 7m followers
6. SHEIN.COM (@sheinofficial) — 17.5m + 5.2m followers
7. PrettyLittleThing (@prettylittlething) — 13.2m + 4.2m followers
8. UFC (@ufc) — 26.3m + 4.2m followers
9. boohoo (@boohoo) — 7.3m + 3.6m followers
10. Mercedes-Benz (@mercedesbenz) — 31.4m + 3.5m followers

The top singers in the USA by Instagram-follower growth were as follows:

1. Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) — 228.1m + 62.9m followers
2. Jennifer Lopez (@jlo) — 147m + 45.6m followers
3. Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) — 152.8m + 44.5m followers
4. Katy Perry (@katyperry) — 117.5m + 32.m followers
5. Billie Eilish (@billieeilish) — 76.9m + 22.5m followers
6. Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) — 102.3m + 22.4m followers
7. Dua Lipa (@dualipa) — 61.9m + 16.m followers
8. Snoop Dogg (@snoopdogg) — 56.5m + 10.4m followers
9. Britney Spears (@britneyspears) — 28.8m + 10.3m followers
10. Doja Cat (@dojacat) — 10.1m + 9m followers
11. Adele (@adele) — 40.5m + 8.1m followers

Conclusion

You may also consult the top influencers to follow on Instagram or top influencers (microinfluencers, lifestyle, content creators, travel, etc). Alternatively, you may compare this top list with last year’s information, via top ‘growing influencers’ of 2020.