You’ve seen a ton of year-end lists by now; We just published the Uproxx Music Critics Poll for 2023, in case you missed that. If you have an appetite for one more ranking, let’s take a look at 2023’s most-liked Instagram posts.
This information isn’t readily available in an official capacity, so the best available data appears to be Wikipedia’s list of the 20 all-time most-liked posts, with figures accurate as of November 4. According to that, the year’s biggest posts came from entertainment multi-hyphenate Selena Gomez, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, and a photographer who captured a colorful sky.
The top post on that list from 2023 is a reel of a vibrant sunset from user @jiangzhibin24, which has about 34.5 million likes. That makes it the most-liked reel/video post in Instagram history, as all the posts above it in the all-time ranks only feature images. It’s the sixth most-liked post ever overall.
The next two 2023 posts on the list are both from Ronaldo. Both feature action shots of Ronaldo during games, and both posts have just short of 28 million likes each. The posts are No. 14 and 15 on the all-time list.
The final 2023 post on the list, at No. 19 all-time and No. 4 this year, comes from Gomez. The post was shared on March 13, is captioned “Violet chemistry,” and includes two selfies of Gomez, in which she’s not wearing makeup.
Unless Taylor Swift finds a cure for cancer or Beyoncé announces she’s running for president in the next few days, that is where the 2023 ranks will likely remain for the rest of the year.
It makes sense that Gomez made the list, considering she was once the most-followed person on Instagram, and is currently the most-followed woman, musician, actor, musician, and person from North America on the platform. She has the No. 4 most-followed account overall: The official Instagram account is No. 1, followed by Ronaldo at No. 2 and fellow soccer icon Lionel Messi at No. 3.