Paige Leskin/Business Insider; YouTube
Jacob Sartorius (left), Kristen Hancher, and Mr. Faisu.
- TikTok is one of the most popular social platforms, particularly among Gen Z, where users can watch short-form video clips and create something that could go viral.
- Some of the most popular creators have millions of followers, who watch them lip-sync, dance, and produce comedy skits as they grow into high-profile influencers.
- These are the 26 most popular TikTok stars, who found fame on the platform and have all shot past 10 million followers.
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To teens, the most popular figures on social media platforms like TikTok are well beyond mega-celebrity status in their eyes.
These TikTok stars claim millions of followers - many who are of Gen Z age themselves - and found fame by creating short video clips lip-syncing to soundbites, showing off viral dances, and crafting comedy skits that get shared thousands of times.
The hottest accounts on the two-year-old TikTok don't have nearly as many followers as the top channels on the more-established YouTube (where T-Series has blown past 100 million subscribers). However, TikTok has now been downloaded more than 1.2 billion times, and can be credited as the launchpad for many of the memes criss-crossing the internet, including Lil Nas X's chart-smashing hit "Old Town Road."
At one point, a pair of German twins named Lisa and Lena had the most popular account on TikTok, with 32.3 million followers, but they deleted their account at the end of this March to "break new ground." So far no other account has topped their lead, although creators are prolifically producing content and quickly gaining ground.
Note that this list consists of independent creators who got their starts as influencers on TikTok or its predecessor, Musical.ly. The rankings exclude accounts run by companies, and those from users who got famous first through other means - like former Vine stars Cameron Dallas and Zach King, and JoJo Siwa of "Dance Moms" fame.
These are the 26 biggest stars on TikTok, all of whom have amassed more than 10 million followers: