Break out the bubbly and balloons: It's Instagram Stories' one-year birthday. Although Stories still draws many lookalike parallels to Snapchat, it's established a community in its own right with 250 million of us Boomerang-ing, sticker-ing, and tagging on a daily basis.
Instagram isn't ringing in the celebration with new creative tools, though you'll see some birthday-themed stickers today. However, the app has released some first-of-its-kind data about which Stories are getting the most views, and the stats are a bit surprising.
The names that you might expect to see at the top — Selena Gomez (who still holds the crown for most followed person on Instagram), Kim Kardashian, or Nicki Minaj — are nowhere to be found, which suggests that having more followers doesn't always equate to more views when it comes to Stories.
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In the U.S., the 15 public figures with the most views are a mix of singers, models, actresses, and comedians — led by Colombian artist J Balvin, The Fat Jewish, and Lele Pons, and rounded out by Emily Ratajkowski, Chloe Moritz, Chiara Ferragni, Bella Hadid, Shay Mitchell, Candice Swanepoel, and Nick Jonas. Women reigns supreme on Stories, claiming 11 of the top 15 most viewed Stories spots. (Lucy Hale, Amanda Cerny, Hailey Baldwin, and Ashley Benson were also among the top 15).
The prominence of Pretty Little Liars among that ranking speaks to the series' popularity in its final year, but it also says something about Instagram Stories' audience. According to Instagram's data, teens watch four times more Stories each day than everyone else.
When Instagram looked at which stories were watched the most overall (not just in the U.S.), many international stars ruled the charts, including Indonesian singers Ashanty and Raisa Alexander, and Brazilian actress Marina Ruy Barbosa.
If you're looking to increase your own viewership, you may want to enlist some friends. According to Instagram, people are more likely to click on @Mentions linked to individual accounts rather than location tags or hashtags.
For other creative ways to up your Stories game, check out our tips here.
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