TOPLINE
Khabane “Khaby” Lame, known for TikTok videos in which he silently mocks complicated “life hack” videos, holds the title of most followed TikToker for the first half of the year with more than 160,500,000 followers, holding his lead of about 10 million followers over dancer and social media personality Charli D’Amelio.
KEY FACTS
Lame, a Senegalese-Italian social media personality, got popular on the short video app for duetting “life hack” videos and silently either making fun or simply showing a simpler way to address the issue “solved” by the hack.
Lame passed D’Amelio as the most followed TikToker in June 2022 and has held the title since then.
Since achieving fame on social media, Lame has been named a judge on Italia’s Got Talent, signed a multi-year contract with Hugo Boss and has a voice cameo in the Italian-dubbed version of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
On June 27, Lame presented his short film “I Am Khabane,” which documents Lame’s story of finding social media success, at the Taormina Film Festival in Italy.
TOP FIVE ACCOUNTS
As of June 29, these are the five TikTok accounts with the most followers, according to SocialTracker:
- Khaby Lame: 160,100,000
- Charli D’Amelio: 150,700,000
- Bella Poarch: 92,700,000
- Addison Rae: 88,600,000
- MrBeast: 83,200,000
KEY BACKGROUND
Lame, 23, first started posting TikToks in 2020 after being laid off from his job as a factory worker in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. His comedy videos have been praised for having an “everyman” appeal. In an interview with the New York Times, Lame said his silent reactions to the absurd life hack videos he duets or stitches is a “global language” and that his “comedic facial expressions and the simplicity of his content” helped him grow into such a large influencer.
TANGENT
Though TikTok users are growing in popularity and the app is becoming a growing place for companies to reach new audiences and sell products, it still faces challenges and people fear the Chinese-owned app is collecting data from American users it could give that to the Communist Party. While there’s no nationwide ban on TikTok, the majority of American states—and Congress—have banned the app from government devices, and Montana recently became the first state to pass a law banning the app completely. That law drew legal challenges from the company and criticism from free speech advocates who argue the ban “unlawfully abridges one of the core freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
BIG NUMBER
1.677 billion. That’s how many users TikTok has, and more than 1 billion of them are considered active monthly users, according to data intelligence company Demand Sage. In March, TikTok passed 150,000,000 American users.
FURTHER READING
How Khaby Lame Took Over TikTok (New York Times)
Top 10 Most Followed TikTok accounts in 2023 (SocialTracker)