Which Royal Has the Most Instagram Followers? You’d Be Surprised

Just because they’re members of the royal family doesn’t mean they can’t have a social media presence. Well, technically senior members of the royal gang aren’t allowed to have personal accounts, but they still have official ones that allow fans around the world to keep up with their busy lives.

We’ll admit that we followed some of our favorite royals on Instagram before the Meghan Markle-era, however, once she stepped onto the scene, we turned our scrolling game up a notch. And now that she and Prince Harry’s official Instagram account is no longer in use, we were wondering, which royal has the most Instagram followers? You’d be surprised.

Before KensingtonRoyal was solely Will and Kate’s account, it was also shared by younger brother Prince Harry. Yup, created in January 2015, the account was used to report the work that the three royals were participating in. However, when Harry got engaged to Meghan Markle in 2017, KensingtonRoyal began to function account for both couples and stayed that way until a few months after Meghan and Harry tied the knot.

Currently, KensingtonRoyal has a whopping 12 million followers, which is not surprising considering these two are possibly the most active (aside from Her Majesty, of course) members of the royal family. Aside from posting their latest royal engagements, the account also shares official portraits of the couple and their three kids, birthday tributes, Middleton’s personal photography and so much more.

Although Meghan Markle and Prince Harry used to hold the title for the most followed royal account on Instagram, they were passed by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge after they stepped down as senior members of the royal family. But they still hold a top spot.

The SussexRoyal account was created in April 2019, 11 months after Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and currently has a total of 10.7 million followers. Even more impressive than it’s large following is the fact that it set the Guinness world record for reaching one million followers faster than any account in Instagram history, doing so in five hours and 45 minutes. Unfortunately, SussexRoyal no longer holds that title, after it was passed by Jennifer Aniston.

The account had to be shut down after the couple chose to lead a life outside of the royal spotlight. Back in March, they wrote a sweet farewell message to their fans and followers. Oh, and did we mention Markle actually used to write the majority of the Instagram captions?

“While you may not see us here, the work continues. Thank you to this community—for the support, the inspiration and the shared commitment to the good in the world,” their final caption read. “We look forward to reconnecting with you soon. You’ve been great!”

While she’s probably the most famous royal in the world, Queen Elizabeth lands third place when it comes to being the most followed on social media. The official RoyalFamily account has a solid 8.2 million followers interested in seeing the day-to-day updates of Her Majesty.

It’s important to note, however, that this account isn’t only focused on the queen herself. The bio reads, “photos and videos from the work & activities of The Queen & The Royal Family.” Accordingly, the account feed often posts the lives of other members, including the Cambridges, Sophie the Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward, Princess Anne, Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles and more. So, if you’re looking for just general information on the British royal fam, this is the account to follow.

A long way away from his two sons and mother, Prince Charles’s official Instagram account, which he shares with his wife Camilla Parker Bowles, still has a reach of over one million.

And while this account is usually run by their social media staffers (as a handful of the accounts often are), it was in 2019 when the Prince of Wales finally decided to take things into his own hands and post a message himself. The occasion? To honor a Sikh holiday in advance of an upcoming royal visit to India. “As I depart for India, on my tenth official visit, I did just want to convey my warmest best wishes to all of you in the Sikh Community in the United Kingdom, and across the Commonwealth, on the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji,” Charles wrote. “The principles on which Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion, and which guide your lives to this day, are ones which can inspire us all—hard work, fairness, respect, and selfless service to others.”

Since then, both he and Camilla have made a point to be more involved with the account.

The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall aren’t the only ones sitting cool at the 1.2 million mark. Princess Eugenie, aka the Princess of York, also has the same amount of followers.

Like her other family members, Eugenie often posts pictures and updates of her royal and philanthropic work. However, she also likes to include other content such as makeup-less selfies, throwback photos, Her sister, Princess Beatrice, on the other hand, prefers to live a quiet life on social media. In fact, we weren’t even aware that the princess had an Instagram account (set to private and with only 675 followers) ’til her good friend Kloss accidentally spilled the beans back in 2018.

Not quite as many as his older sister Kate, but James Middleton still has a decent size following—194 thousand, to be exact. While he’s actively posting about his passion for dogs as well as date nights with his fiancé, Alizee Thevenet, Middleton also takes breaks from social media from time to time. The most recent case being in February when Middleton stayed off of his account for almost two months to focus on his mental health.

Before he was an avid social media poster, the 33-year-old (like Beatrice) kept his Instagram account private. This changed in 2019 when he suddenly decided to go public, sending royal fans across the world into a frenzy.