A photo of an egg has beaten Kylie Jenner's record for the most liked image on Instagram

A photograph of a hen's egg has emerged victorious in a viral effort to surpass Kylie Jenner's record for the Most liked image on Instagram.

The image was uploaded by the account 'world_record_egg' on Friday 4 January, posted with the 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."

Kylie Jenner

Ten days later on Monday 14 January, the photo of the egg duly surpassed the reality TV star's total, reaching 30.5 million likes during that afternoon. 

Kylie Jenner set the record in February 2018 when her post announcing the arrival of her baby daughter, Stormi, topped 18 million likes.

Responding to the new achievement on Instagram Stories, the anonymous account for the Egg Gang posted: "This is madness. What a time to be alive. Thank you so much for all of your support and messages. I'm gonna try and get back to as many of you as possible. But for now I need to sleep. It doesn't end here though, we're only just getting started. #EggGang Mic drop."

Following hot on the heels of a new record for the Fastest time to gain one million followers on Instagram by K-Pop rising star Kang Daniel, excitement around the egg account grew as the possibility emerged that breaking the record held by a social media titan celebrity just might be possible.

Kylie Jenner took it all in her stride, and responded by reposting an older video of her attempting to fry an egg on tarmac, along with the caption: "Take that little egg." 

Jenner still retains the record title for Highest annual earnings for a celebrity (female, current), which may be some comfort.

In the social media world, prior to a recent update on Twitter, an image of an egg represented an account which had not yet uploaded a profile photo.

In what could be interpreted as a reaction to celebrity dominance of social media, the egg-citement around the power of viral humour to achieve record glory was reminiscent of #NuggsForCarter on Twitter in 2017, which saw a request for a year's supply of chicken nuggets hit headlines around the world.

A brief history of the most liked image on Instagram

  • Will Smith and Justin Bieber set the record back in 2014 with their record-setting 1.5 million likes
  • Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West then took the title with 2.4 million likes with their wedding photo in 2014
  • Followed by Kendall Jenner’s rise from 2.6 million, then 3.1 million, topping out at 3.5 million likes on one of her posts
  • Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s announcement of her pregnancy with Sir and Rumi Carter then received 7.3+ million likes in 2017, which was then broken by Kylie Jenner’s photo of her newborn daughter Stormi with 18+ million likes in 2018