A look again at how comedians use Social Media accounts and how many followers they have. I’m only looking at the biggest platforms, because Threads, BlueSky, Discord, LinkedIn etc. etc. just don’t have enough comedians on them.
What I find fascinating (about this type of data) is (1) how some comedians are not making the most of potential social platform income and (2) how people’s perception (of how BIG a comedian is) differs from the reality of how many followers they have.
I’ve followed this post up with details of all the totals smushed together – here.
A few quick thoughts
- US comics have WAY bigger numbers than Brits, because of the bigger demographic
- Some platforms (TikTok) have only numbers to the nearest 100k, so it can take some time for a number to tick over
- Some people may follow the same comedian on multiple platforms – can’t do anything about that
- Some followers may be inactive accounts – but this is going to be the same for everyone
- The definition of Brit / US refers to where their performance location is, as that reflects the comedy culture they are performing within. So Rich Hall and Reginald D Hunter are identified as Brit – which means their potential audience reach is smaller than it may have been if they had remained in the US
- Everyone is posting a mix of content that includes – clips from specials, TV clips, crowd work (heckles), podcast clips, personal photos etc. etc.
X / Twitter
This is a tricky one as, for the most part, follower numbers have been declining throughout 2025. It started with the Trump / Musk stuff and seems to have affected UK comics more than US. Probably because the US is such a big demographic and so losing 100 subs is less noticeable.
There are many well-known Brit comics that do NOT have accounts. For example – Alan Carr, Greg Davies, Micky Flanagan, Rhod Gilbert, Lee Mack, Romesh Ranganathan.
Generally, the figures are not very exciting – will feed them into the overall totals in a future post:
Top Brits (X followers)
- Ricky Gervais – 14.7m
- Jimmy Carr – 6.3m
- Jack Whitehall – 5.7m
- John Bishop – 3.3m
- Bill Bailey – 3.2m
- Frankie Boyle – 2.5m
- Dara O’Briain – 2.4m
- Sarah Millican – 1.9m
Top Americans (X followers)
- Kevin Hart – 36m
- Joe Rogan – 15.4m
- Sarah Silverman – 11.1m
- Aziz Ansari – 9.2m
- Chris Rock – 5.1m
TikTok
TikTok figures were viewed very early on August 1st.
Top Brits (TikTok followers)
- Jack Whitehall – 3.5m
- Jimmy Carr – 2.3m
- Russell Howard – 1.6m
- Michael McIntyre – 1.2m
What stands out with the above is the variance figure for Jimmy. Compared to March 23rd 2025 the totals for Jack, Russell and Michael are unchanged – whereas Jimmy has gained 600k more followers.
After these guys the 5th place drops right down to 622k (Rob Beckett), 598k (Sarah Millican) and 580k (Romesh Ranganathan).
Top Brits (TikTok likes)
If we then look at how many LIKES each TikTok channel has had:
- Jack Whitehall – 88.2m
- Jimmy Carr – 44.9m
- Russell Howard – 44.9m
- Michael McIntyre – 14.6m
Chasing Michael M is Sarah Millican (10.9m), Larry Dean (10.5m) and Rob Beckett (7.1m).
If we then look at the Likes growth – since March 23rd 2025 the increment has been a massive leap for Jimmy:
- Jimmy Carr – 13.6m
- Russell Howard – 1.4m
- Jack Whitehall – 800k
- Michael McIntyre – 300k
Top Americans (TikTok followers)
- Kevin Hart – 34.4m
- Matt Rife – 19.5m
- Gabriel Iglesias – 8.4m
- Theo Von – 7.8m
Top Americans (TikTok likes)
- Matt Rife – 473m
- Kevin Hart – 184.9m
- Theo Von – 145.9m
- Andrew Schultz – 110.2m
Instagram figures were viewed mid-morning of August 1st.
Top Brits (Instagram followers)
- Ricky Gervais – 4.4m
- Jack Whitehall – 3.4m
- Jimmy Carr – 2.5m
- Alan Carr, Noel Fielding and Joe Lycett – 1.4m
- Romesh Ranganathan – 1.2m
The biggest growth in follower numbers (since March 23rd 2025):
- Jimmy Carr – 750k
- Ricky Gervais – 200k
- Michael McIntyre – 184k
Top Americans (Instagram followers)
- Kevin Hart – 176m
- Joe Rogan – 19.9m
- Amy Schumer – 12.7m
- Matt Rife – 10.5m
- Theo Von – 8.3m
- Chris Rock – 6m
Matt Rife had added 1m followers (since March 23rd) but had posted 1,054 times. The next closest to him, for number of posts, was Guz Kahn with 917 (which had gained him 7k followers, bringing his total to 438k).
The Facebook figures were viewed on 31st July 2025 and compared to May 5th 2025. Some accounts (depending on when they were created) show more specific numbers than others – so this is just what I could view.
Top Brits (Facebook followers)
- Michael McIntyre – 6.1m
- Ricky Gervais – 5.4m
- Russell Howard – 3.77m
- Jimmy Carr – 3.72m
- Peter Kay – 3.3m
Hot on their heels would be Sarah Millican (2.9m) and Jack Whitehall (2.05m).
Top Americans (Facebook followers)
- Kevin Hart – 35m
- Gabriel Iglesias – 12.7m
- Matt Rife – 9.1m
- Joe Rogan – 7.7.
- Chris Rock – 7.4m
Facebook growth
To pull out some growth variance figures, across the almost 3 months the biggest were:
- Jimmy Carr (UK) – 476,126
- Matt Rife (US) – 400,000
- Michael McIntyre (UK) – 125,991
After those 3 there are 3 more that have added a rounded 100,000 (from what I can see):
- Sarah Millican (UK)
- Theo Von (US)
- Sebastian Maniscalco (US)
YouTube
YouTube figures were viewed in the morning of August 1st.
Note – Jimmy Carr has 2 official channels and these have been added together.
Top Brits (YouTube subscribers)
- Jimmy Carr – 1.51m
- Russell Howard – 1.48m
- Jack Whitehall – 1.31m
- Sarah Millican – 585k
- Peter Kay – 296k
Comparing to March 23rd 2025 the YouTube subs growth has been:
- Jimmy Carr – 239k
- Sarah Millican – 24k
- Peter Kay – 14k
- Russell Howard – zero
- Jack Whitehall – -10k
Top Americans (YouTube subscribers)
- Joe Rogan – 20.1m
- Gabriel Iglesias – 8.31m
- Theo Von – 4.12m
- Matt Rife – 3.79m
- Bert Kreischer – 1.48m
- Bill Burr – 1.14m
The accounts showing the most growth, since March 23rd, were:
- Joe Rogan – 600k
- Theo Von – 350k
- Matt Rife – 240k
How Many YT Videos? (Brits)
- Jimmy Carr – 2,234
- Russell Howard – 1,270
- Joe Lycett – 791
- Sarah Millican – 569
- Jack Whitehall – 515
How Many YT Videos? (Americans)
- Joe Rogan – 3,438
- Mark Normand – 1,948
- Bert Kreischer – 1,830
- Gabriel Iglesias – 1,744
- Jim Gaffigan – 1,442
- Sam Morril – 1,391
- Sebastian Maniscalco – 1,358
- Theo Von – 1,133
- Bill Burr – 1,105
What is noteworthy here is that Jimmy’s total videos (2,234) would slot in behind Joe Rogan’s 3,438
YouTube Channel Views (Brits)
Channel View totals take some concentration (when typing) as these are telephone numbers!
- Jimmy Carr – 786,357,598
- Russell Howard – 541,302,042
- Jack Whitehall – 230,965,807
- Peter Kay – 176,369,452
- Sarah Millican – 89,708,437
YouTube Channel Views (Americans)
- Joe Rogan – 6,150,762,516
- Gabriel Iglesias – 2,353,071,430
- Matt Rife – 970,958,650
- Theo Von – 912,237,248
YouTube Variance (growth)
The growth since March 23rd 2025 is interesting – just because we have a Brit on top!! Very unusual, considering the demographics.
- Jimmy Carr – 228,761,593
- Joe Rogan – 200,826,503
- Gabriel Iglesias – 154,781,204
- Matt Rife – 144,448,257
- Theo Von – 125,640,871
- Bert Kreischer – 49,719,501
- Phil Hanley – 41,894,460
- Sebastian Maniscalco – 26,540,579
- Mark Normand – 19,812,226
- Jim Gaffigan – 18,822,319
It’s then 11th place before we find
- Russell Howard – 18,354,199
And then we’re back to the Americans again. The other Brits were all under 8m growth and Jack Whitehall only managed 692k.
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