Statistics show that TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020, and so far, it has been downloaded 2.6 billion times!
So how does TikTok become famous among the crowd? What are the reasons for the success of this short video social media platform?
In 2017, ByteDance(a Chinese company) purchased Music.ly and combined it with their short video sharing app “Douyin.” The aim was to get domination over the western market, especially America.
And hence TikTok was born. Today, teenagers use TikTok to create lip-sync videos and to showcase their talents such as dance, acting, and various stage performances.
TikTok creates certain viral challenges for its users to complete. The Chinese market still has the Doyuin app, which many locals use there. TikTok in the US has 8.2 million female users and 6.1 million male users.
Almost 700 million users access TikTok monthly worldwide. People can use it in 155 countries and 75 languages. On average, people spend 52 minutes watching Tiktok a day.
TikTok allows its users to gift coins to the content creators on the platform. It is estimated that TikTok generates $110 million monthly from user spending.
According to the statistics, TikTok is the biggest app earner, generating $540 million in 2020. Tinder and YouTube follow it.
Will Smith is the top world-known celebrity on the platform with 64.7 million followers. Some of the other celebrities on the platform are Miley Cyrus(13.6 million followers) and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson(48.4 million followers).
Interestingly 47% of TikTok users are younger than 30, and around 21% are between 30 and 39.
In fact, most TikTok users are under 18, and studies show that more teenagers are attracted to the short video application. This article concentrates on the 16 most influential content creators of TikTok.
Article Contents
Top 16 TikTok Stars That You Should Follow in 2024
Let’s check out the top 16 content creators and their statistics.
1. charli d’amelio
username: @charlidamelio
Charli D’Amelio set her foot on TikTok platform with a dance duet tuitorial. Charli is from Norwalk, Connecticut, where she spent her childhood with her elder sister Dixie D’Amelio and her parents, Marc and Heidi D’Amelio.
Her father, Marc D’Amelio, tried his luck as a candidate for Connecticut State Senate in 2018 but lost the election.
She started her TikTok career in June 2019, and before that, she posted videos and photos from her dance competitions on Instagram.
In a short period, she became unstoppable and topped the TikTok chart surpassing Loren Gray, who had 41.3 million followers.
Charli creates her own dance styles and posts several videos a day on TikTok, including vlogs, daily activities, lip-sync videos, etc. She started her YouTube channel where she put vlogs related to her daily life, cooking experiments, etc.
According to the latest stats, she has got 9.65 million subscribers on YouTube. And she supports activities that benefit children with several disabilities and collects charity from her followers to donate to a good cause.
Charli lives with her parents in their house in LA.
2. Khabane lame
username: @khaby.lame
Based on the 2021 stats, Khabane Lame is the second most followed TikToker in the world. Khabane, known by his TikTok name Khaby was born on 9th March 2020 in Senegal.
His parents moved to Italy when he was 1 and his 3 siblings. Khaby was a CNC machine operator at a Turin-based factory and lived in a public housing complex.
Khaby lost his job in March 2020 and got affected by the crisis followed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was during this time he started posting TikTok videos in which he tried dancing watching video games, and he created most of his early videos in Italian.
At one point, he started creating mock videos where he silently criticized some complicated life hack videos. He performed the tasks as simple as possible without saying a word, and his facial expressions suddenly took him to popularity.
Based on the statistics from October 2021, eight out of twenty-five most liked videos on TikTok were from his account.
Khaby overtook Gianluca Vacchi, the most famous Italian TikToker, to become number one in Italy in April 2021. And he became the second most followed TikToker by surpassing Addison Rae in July 2021.
Although he lives in Italy, Khaby doesn’t possess an Italian passport or citizenship. According to him, a piece of paper is not required to prove that he is Italian. Wikipedia says Khaby has $1.3 -$2.7 million net worth.
3. Bella Poarch
username: @bellapoarch
Bella Poarch, aged 24, is the fourth richest TikTok celebrity in the world. According to Forbes reports, Bella stands fourth in revenue from TikTok, followed by the D’Amelio sisters and Addison Rae.
According to statistics, Bella made $5 billion from her music, sponsorships from Moncler, Google, Tinder, etc.
Bella made a lip-sync video to the rap song “M to the B” (a British rap song) that became viral in August 2020. She was born in the Philippines and reached Texas at the age of 13, where she spent her teenage.
Bella joined the Navy at the age of 18 and served in Japan for US Navy. She believes that she gained knowledge about freedom, Independence, and co-existence to achieve great things from her Navy life.
Most of her content on TikTok is lip-sync videos and new dance trends. Along with that, she also focuses on moral standards in the Asian-American community.
Her debut single “Build a Bitch” concentrates on the unrealistic beauty standards set by corporate companies.
The album has a spot on 58th position on Billboard’s Hot 100 international Chart and 14th position on Global Excl. US Billboard chart. It also got listed in 24th position in the Global Billboard 200 chart.
She has launched her own merchandise section on her website https://bellapoarch.ph/Merch.
4. Addison Rae
username: @addisonre
Addison Rae Easterling was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, on the sixth of October 2000. Her parents are Sheri Easterling and Monty Lopez, Lucas Lopez, and Enzo Lopez are her two younger brothers.
She is a passionate dancer, actor, and singer who started TikTok in 2019. Addison Rae is one of the four most followed celebrities on TikTok, along with Charli D’Amelio, Khaby Lame, and Bella Poarch.
She earns around $156k per Instagram post and generates a revenue of more than $80k per month from YouTube.
Addison released her singing debut single “Obsessed” in March 2021. She made her acting debut on “He’s All That,” which was released on Netflix in August 2021. In 2020, Forbes named her the highest-earning TikToker.
During the period, she managed to earn around $5 million from various deals from brands such as L’Oréal, Reebok, Hollister, etc.
She donated $1 million prize money after winning the Mario Tennis Aces tournament for the No Kid Hungry charity.
5. Zach King
username: @zachking
Everyone knows about the social media magician Zach King from his magic vines. He was born on February 4, 1990, in Portland, Oregon.
He started his social media career in 2008 through YouTube and made his first video on TikTok in 2016 when it was called Music.ly.
He is now the fifth most-followed TikToker on the platform. He posted a broomstick riding video in December 2019, which got almost 2 billion views, and it became a Guinness world record.
Zach King and his wife Rachel Holm got 6th place in The Amazing Race, an American Reality Show in 2015.
6. Will Smith
username: @willsmith
Will Smith doesn’t need any introduction as he has made the best out of various roles in life. On September 25, 1968, he was born in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a successful actor, award-winning rapper, and film producer.
Interestingly, Will started posting videos on the TikTok platform where teenagers and youngsters were shining.
People were amazed to see him on TikTok, and some suspected that he had a professional team working in the background for creating quality content on TikTok.
As of the latest stats, Will Smith is the 6th most popular TikTok personality in the world. He has accumulated more than 60 million fans and continues with his track record as in the movie field.
One of the greatest specialties of Will Smith is his successful movie track record. There are almost no-flop movies in his sleeve, and he holds the record of the most $100 million grossed movies in a row which is 8 times!
In 1991, He and his friend Jeff Townes won the Grammy award, making a historical record of winning the award by a rap artist.
He also holds a Guinness world record for most public appearances in 12 hours during the promotion of the 2005 movie Hancock.
7. Kimberly Loaiza
username: @kimberly.loaiza
Kimberly Loaiza is a Mexican singer/vlogger 8th in the most popular TikTokers list. She was born on 12th December 1997 and was married to her work partner Juan de Dios Pantoja, in November 2018.
She has more than 12 million YouTube subscribers and more than 33 million Instagram followers.
Kimberly is talented and creates unique vlogs in which she presents beautiful music content and knows what the audience wants from her.
She is very popular as a Fashion icon in Mexico and is idolized by many youngsters worldwide.
8. Dixie D’Amelio
username: @dixiedamelio
Dixie is Charli D’Amelio’s elder sister, born on twelfth August 2001. She started her TikTok career alongside her sister and became successful in a very short time.
Her first single was released in June 2020, called “Be Happy,” which became a sensation in TikTok and has gained more than 86 million streams on Spotify.
Dixie signed UTA(United Talent Agency) in January 2020 and has confirmed deals with Morphe, Hollister, Brat TV, etc. She likes sports like field hockey, track running, and cross country.
Based on the most recent stats, Dixie has a $3 million net worth, and it is skyrocketing in the coming months.
9. cznburak
username: @cznburak
Burak Ozdemir is a Turkish chef born in March 1994 and became famous by the name “Czn Burak.” He got attention on social media for the style he cooked food. Czn Burak has 55.56 million TikTok followers.
Czn Burak mainly prepares Middle east food items with the help of giant utensils and a constant smile on his face. He has 3.57 million followers on YouTube and 30.8 million Instagram followers.
Czn Burak started his cooking career at the age of 13 under the guidance of his grandfather and now owns Hatay Civilizations Table, which has 4 branches(one branch is in Dubai).
10. Spencer X
username: @spencerx
Spencer Polanco Knight, known as Spencer X, has 54.9 million followers on TikTok. The 29-year-old beatboxer calls himself “mouth music man” in his TikTok bio and has gained more than 1 billion likes on the platform.
Spencer X was among the first nineteen TikTok content creators to receive a $1 billion Creator Fund in August 2020, and he has performed on a 48-hour Livestream on TikTok.
He has partnered with HBO, Sketchers, Oreos, Sony, Monster Energy and has collaborated with famous musicians such as Marshmello, Sean Kingston, etc.
Spencer X mentioned during an interview that he is a self-taught beatboxer after discovering beatboxing, a fascinating field. Based on his TikTok earnings of $1.5 million, The Richest ranked him 5th richest TikToker in the world.
He got into the Top 16 of the American Beatbox Championships and secured second place in The Midwest Beatbox Battle.
11. Loren Gray
username: @lorengray
Before Charli D’amelio became a sensation, Loren Gray ranked first among TikTok’s most followers chart. She was born on April 2002 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
Loren started her Music.ly career in 2015 at the age of 13 and gained popularity within a short while. She used Loren Beech as her user name in the early Music.ly
days and later changed it to Loren Gray.
Loren was bullied in her school and left the school due to the harassment she had to face from her classmates. She has 3.79 subscribers support on YouTube and more than 22 million followers on Instagram.
Her first song was released in August 2018, called “My Story” under Capitol Records. Celebrity Net Worth mentioned that Loren Grey has a $5 million net worth.
12. Michael Le
username: @justmaiko
Michael Le is famous for his dancing performance in 2016 through TikTok and became a sensation among dance lovers. He is popular for his singing, lip-syncing, choreography, and comedy.
Michael was born in March 2000 in West Palm Beach, Florida, United States. He was keen on learning dancing moves from his childhood itself and started making videos of dancing and lip-sync at the age of 12.
Michael has a YouTube channel with the user name Michael Le with 345000 subscribers and 2.5 million Instagram followers.
He earns money from sponsorships and partnerships from various brands such as Twitch, Invisalign, etc. Michael is also the brand ambassador of Bang drinks and sells his merchandise through Shluv clothing.
Michael Le(Justmaiko) has an estimated net worth of $4 million as of 2021.
Michael has collaborated with many famous dancers like Crissa Jackson, Javier Romero, Jason Derulo, Mikeila J and has performed “Hips Don’t Lie” in an escalator.
If Bella Poarch is the most liked star in TikTok, Michael’s escalator video is the most shared one(more than 550,000 shares).
Michael is one of the few big TikTok stars who raised his voice against the TikTok ban proposed by Donald Trump in 2020. He and his four friends created a social media collective called Shluv House to support each other.
They live together in LA and create content on various social media platforms. Apart from dancing, Michael likes to click photographs.
13. Jason Derulo
username: @jasonderulo
Jason Joel Desrouleaux, born in Miramar, Florida, known by his stage name “Jason Derulo,” is an American songwriter, singer, and dancer.
Jason has sold more than thirty million singles and accomplished eleven Platinum singles. He has sold over thirty million singles since his solo recording career in 2009.
Jason Derulo studied at performing arts schools located in Florida and has started writing songs at the age of eight.
He had an exotic skill to create beautiful lines that grabbed attention, bringing him various projects to write songs for celebrities like Lil Wayne, Diddy, Donnie Klang, Cassie, Grant Goan, etc.
As of 2022, Jason’s net worth is estimated to be $16 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Most of his earnings are from merchandise sales, tv shows, live performances, social media platforms, and other paid partnerships.
In an Interview, Jason mentioned that he generates $75000 per TikTok video and some of them are viral on the platform. He has a $3 million mansion in LA, California, with 5 bedrooms, a giant pool, a movie theatre, and other high-class facilities.
However, Jason mentioned during a session that the revenue net worth cited in the websites is nowhere near the actual one.
Jason studied various dancing styles from his childhood like ballet, hip-hop, jazz, tap out of passion, and it helped him while performing for his albums in front of the camera.
In 2014, Jason became the number 1 most played artist(male) on the radio, with 9 songs reaching the Top 10. His album ‘Talk Dirty’ became Number 4 on US Billboard, and about 44000 copies were sold during the first week.
14. The Rock
username: @therock
The Rock doesn’t require any introduction! Dwayne Douglas Johnson, known by his stage name “The Rock,” has done plenty of things in his life.
He was a successful football player, a professional wrestler in WWE, a Hollywood actor, an American film producer, and many more!
Dwayne has around 5.88 million YouTube subscribers, 292 million followers on Instagram, and 48.46 million on TikTok.
Earlier, Dwayne Johnson was a great wrestler and got a lot of titles in his name in WWE. He was born in 1972 in California.
Dwayne’s father and grandfather were wrestlers, and he grew up watching his father competing in the ring. He started working in movies alongside wrestling.
His production movie Jumanji: The Next Level generated more than $320 million in the United States and Canada and made $479.7 million from other countries.
It grossed a worldwide total of $800 million, whereas the production cost was somewhere between $125 million – $132 million. Jumanji is Dwayne Johnson’s highest-grossing film to date.
He enjoys posting positive vibes on social media platforms, especially Tiktok, where he posts workout sessions, various TikTok challenges, family time, daily life events, and other related topics.
15. Dominik
username: @domelipa
Dominik Elizabeth Reséndez Robledo was born in Mexico in August 2001. She was raised by her mother, Norma, along with two brothers, Kevin And Gabriel. She was known by her stage name “Domelipa” on social media.
Domelipa was a gymnast in her childhood days and was flexible to perform various dancing skills on the TikTok platform. Domelipa currently has 4.17 million YouTube subscribers and 16.3 million Instagram followers.
It was in 2018 she joined TikTok and began uploading videos regularly, and was able to gather around 47.99 million followers there. Domelipa is Mexicos, one of the top TikTok celebrities now.
She is famous for the lip-sync dance videos that she choreographed based on her lifestyle that contains various parts of her life. Domelipa joined the Social group CheliHouse in 2020.
She uses Instagram and YouTube for sharing her modeling photos, videos related to daily life tutorials, etc.
Domelipa has got a lot of opportunities from various brands like Pandora, EOS, Tommy Jeans, etc., and has got featured as a cover girl in Tu Magazine.
16. BTS
username: @bts_official_bighit
BTS, a seven-member boy band, has millions of followers worldwide. BTS is the shorter version of Bangtan Sonyeondan,” which translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts” from Korean in English.
The band name signifies that they are against all stereotypes, criticisms, etc. This South Korean boy band was started in 2010 under Big Hit Entertainment and debuted in 2013.
Today, BTS has 59 million Instagram followers and 63.2 million YouTube subscribers. The seven members, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, RM, and Jungkook, create most of their works together without the help of outsiders.
They follow hip-hop musical styles and cover a wide range of genres.
Some of their favorite plots include troubles in school life, mental health-related issues, coming of age, self-love, individualism, losing something important, psychologically related topics, etc.
RM is the captain of the gang and possibly the only person who can speak English.
Interestingly RM learned English watching the series “Friends.” “Dark and Wild” was their first album released in August 2014.
Most of their albums tried to incorporate relevant topics such as bullying in school, suicidal tendencies, society ideals, nihilism, women empowerment, etc., which is the reason for its wider acceptance.
In 2017, BTS performed at an American Music Awards, their first TV performance in America. Jungkook of BTS created a new world record on TikTok, with his name being the most viewed hashtags.
BTS members don’t have individual accounts in TikTok, but still, people created the hashtag and made it famous with 30 billion views. BTS has taken this to their account and supported the activity.
They have one of the most expensive apartments in Seoul at the end of 2017. A single unit of the complex costs around $75 million! BTS was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People on the Internet.
