35 Million People Shared Their Pride on Instagram This Weekend

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Updated: | Originally published: ;

More than 35 million people participated in the Pride weekend celebrations on Instagram, creating 116 million interactions, TIME has exclusively learned.

That’s 116 million photographs, comments and likes — a record for a pride event and more than during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, an event that lasted a month.

These high numbers can be explained by the Supreme Court’s historic decision, which legalized same-sex marriage across the U.S. on Friday, but also by Instagram’s release of its new search and explore feature, which has made it easier for users to participate in the conversation on the photo-sharing platform. During much of the weekend, the pride-related hashtags were trending.

The top hashtags were:

  • #lovewins
  • #pride
  • #equality
  • #loveislove
  • #love
  • #lgbt
  • #gay
  • #marriageequality
  • #gaypride
  • #pride2015
  • Users also embraced emojis with six of the top 10 emoticons shared being hearts. The number two emoji was of a rainbow, with emojis depicting same-sex couples placing seventh and eighth on the list. While the bulk of the activity took place in the U.S., Instagram also saw posts shared from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Russia, Turkey, and the U.K. among many other countries.

    Cities such as San Francisco, New York and London were also trending, as highlighted in the curated collection called “Places of Pride”, which Instagram curated throughout the weekend.

    Meet the Stars of Miley Cyrus' #InstaPride Portraits

    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Precious Davis poses for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Brendan Jordan poses for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Tyler Ford poses for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Mariana Marroquin, left, and Alex Schmider pose for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Precious Davis, left, and Gigi Gorgeous pose for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Greta Martela, left, and Nina Chaubal pose for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    From left: A.J. Lehman, Kenzie Normandin, Brendan Jordan, Hailey Jordan, Alex Schmider, Mariana Marroquin, Leo Sheng, Nancy Barton and Laura Zeff pose for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Greta Martela, left, and Nina Chaubal check their phones at the #InstaPride photo shoot in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Mariana Marroquin gets prepared to be photographed by Miley Cyrus in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Myles Brady and Precious Davis pose for a portrait in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Precious Davis and her fiance Myles Brady kiss at the #InstaPride photo shoot in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    A.J. Lehman and his friend Kenzie Normandin pose at the #InstaPride photo shoot in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus
    Miley Cyrus Happy Hippie
    Yellow balloons decorate the studio at the #InstaPride photo shoot in Hollywood, Calif., on May 22, 2015.Miley Cyrus

    Correction: The original version of this story stated that the number of Instagram interactions during Pride weekend constituted a record for Instagram. It was more than the number of interactions observed during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

    Olivier Laurent is the editor of TIME LightBox. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @olivierclaurent

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