Man Who Posted the Most Liked Instagram Photo of All Time Said it Was a ‘Fluke’

Lionel Messi’s 2022 World Cup post is now the most-liked photograph on Instagram, but before that, the photo with the greatest number of likes was that of a humble egg. The story behind the popular egg started with Kylie Jenner. She held a record for the most liked Instagram post. She had uploaded a photograph to the platform showing the tiny hand of her newborn baby Stormi holding onto her thumb.

Breaking the Record

The image held the top spot for almost a year and received 19 million likes for the entire time it stayed posted. A London advertising executive called Chris Godfrey and his friends Alissa Khan-Whelan and CJ Brown planned to dethrone Jenner. They did it with a picture of an egg on a white background posted on Instagram. It had a caption, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)! We got this.”

And it worked. Within 10 days, the picture got famous and became the most-liked image on Instagram. The post got 10 million likes and retained its top position until Dec 2022 when the FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar was held.

A Publicity Campaign for Mental Health America

A later picture that the trio posted showed the egg starting to crack. The follow-up image showed that it was buckling due to the weight of pressure social media fame gave it. The interesting part is that the photo was part of a publicity campaign for Mental Health America.

Andrew Essex, CEO and founder of Plan A, a creative holding company, said that being able to get a lot of people to pay attention to an egg picture was not normal. He called the event a fluke. Chris agreed with the statement and argued that the fluke caught the world’s attention and what they did with the attention counted.

Dethroning an Egg

On December 18, 2022, Lionel Messi posted photos with the Argentina men’s national football team trophy after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup, ending the egg’s Instagram reign as the most-liked photo.

There’s no need to worry, though. Someday, something even more epic and strange than the egg will come along and will once again dethrone the celebrity photos holding the most-liked photo spot. Until then, we’ll always remember the egg.