--- title: Most-Followed Celebrity on Twitter 2016 description: Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and more rank as Twitter's most popular people to follow this year, in a near-repeat of 2015. canonical: https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-06T17:35:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T15:03:32.000Z og:title: Katy Perry Tops Twitter's Most-Followed Celebrity List Again og:description: Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and more hold their spots as Twitter's favorites. og:url: https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae49fc8ef99bc74/6988b0d92dce0166c39eba3c/katy-perry-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Capitol Records Honored By The Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce With A "Star Of Recognition" og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Katy Perry Tops Twitter's Most-Followed Celebrity List Again twitter:description: Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and more hold their spots as Twitter's favorites. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae49fc8ef99bc74/6988b0d92dce0166c39eba3c/katy-perry-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Katy Perry Reigns Supreme Still as Twitter's Most-Followed Celebrity > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:03 PM UTCPublished: Dec 6, 2016 5:35 PM UTC  Katy Perry attends the ceremony honoring Capitol Records by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with a "Star of Recognition" at Capitol Records Tower on November 15, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Katy Perry attends the ceremony honoring Capitol Records by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with a "Star of Recognition" at Capitol Records Tower on November 15, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. Jason LaVeris—Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:03 PM UTCPublished: Dec 6, 2016 5:35 PM UTC Once again, [pop powerhouse Katy Perry](http://time.com/4170618/katy-perry-twitter-followers/?iid=sr-link3) can claim the crown as [most-followed celebrity](http://time.com/4351996/katy-perry-twitter-hacking/?iid=sr-link1) on Twitter. In 2016, the [politically-active](http://time.com/4430948/dnc-katy-perry-orlando-bloom/?iid=sr-link1) superstar was joined by fellow music moguls Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift on top of the social media platform’s ranking, an order that remained [unchanged from 2015](https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristinharris/most-popular-celebrities-on-twitter-in-2015?utm%5Fterm=.yapnqYWP5#.rrvW17AmZ). President Barack Obama nabbed the number four seat once more for his personal handle (@POTUS, meanwhile, only had 12 million), followed by Rihanna and Lady Gaga. The only other guy on the list was another Justin; Justin “Can’t Stop the Feeling” Timberlake, that is. The biggest switch-up was the addition of a certain Kim Kardashian West, who made the list for the first time, at number nine. Pop royalty Britney Spears completed the top ten, while soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, who was 10th in 2015, was out. Of the ten, eight were musicians (with TV host [Ellen DeGeneres](http://time.com/4580807/president-obama-presidential-medal-of-freedom/?iid=sr-link6) and the infamous Kardashian taking the other spots). And despite questions about Twitter’s popularity [in the age of Snapchat](http://time.com/4355554/snapchat-twitter-daily-users/?iid=sr-link1), raw numbers suggest there’s still plenty of growth going on: while Perry had 78.3 million followers in 2015, she appears to have gained more than 16 million over the year. In fact, all of 2015’s follower counts were eclipsed by the 2016 list. Here’s the complete breakdown for 2016: 1. Katy Perry — 94.5 million 2. Justin Bieber — 90.2 million 3. Taylor Swift — 82.2 million 4. Barack Obama —80.1 million 5. Rihanna — 68.1 million 6. Lady Gaga — 64.6 million 7. Ellen DeGeneres — 63.8 million 8. Justin Timberlake — 57.3 million 9. Kim Kardashian West — 49.3 million 10. Britney Spears — 49.3 million But fame is fickle. In 2017, Katy Perry remained atop the rankings with the highest number of followers engrossed with her posts about makeup collaboration posts and [_Witness_\-related](http://time.com/4786126/katy-perry-nicki-minaj-swish-swish/) announcements, at 108 million followers as of February 2018\. And yes, the Bieber — despite [canceling](https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/03/entertainment/justin-bieber-letter/index.html) his tour dates and remaining [mostly](http://time.com/5007723/justin-bieber-selena-bike-ride-pictures/) out of the spotlight — kept up his popularity, with 105 million followers. But it was Barack Obama who made the leap to number three, with Rihanna trailing him at number four. Taylor Swift, meanwhile, took a dip, settling in at the fifth place position. Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Cristiano Ronaldo (making a comeback), [Justin Timberlake](http://time.com/5132997/watch-justin-timberlake-full-halftime-show/) and Kim Kardashian West rounded out the top ten. Here’s the full list for 2017: 1. Katy Perry — 108 million 2. Justin Bieber — 105 million 3. Barack Obama — 100 million 4. Rihanna — 86 million 5. Taylor Swift — 86 million 6. Ellen DeGeneres — 77 million 7. Lady Gaga — 77 million 8. Cristiano Ronaldo — 69 million 9. Justin Timberlake — 65 million 10. Kim Kardashian West — 59 million > [](https://twitter.com/katyperry/status/864074506968510464) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/"},"headline":"Katy Perry Reigns Supreme Still as Twitter's Most-Followed Celebrity","datePublished":"2016-12-06T17:35:59.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T15:03:32.000Z","description":"You're gonna hear her roar (on Twitter, anyway)","url":"https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Social Media","Music","entertainment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae49fc8ef99bc74/6988b0d92dce0166c39eba3c/katy-perry-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaae49fc8ef99bc74/6988b0d92dce0166c39eba3c/katy-perry-twitter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Capitol Records Honored By The Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce With A \"Star Of Recognition\"","caption":"Capitol Records Honored By The Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce With A \"Star Of Recognition\"","creditText":"Jason LaVeris—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4591951/top-twitter-celebrities-2016/","name":"Katy Perry Reigns Supreme Still as Twitter's Most-Followed Celebrity"}}]}] ```