Khaby Lame Dethrones Charli D'Amelio to Become the Most Followed TikTok Star

Within eight days, Khaby Lame amassed over a million followers, dethroning Charli D’Amelio and becoming the most followed person on TikTok. 

On June 15, 2022, Lame had 140.7million followers on the app, while D’Amelio had 141.3 million followers. And at the time of this writing, Lame has 143.1 million while D'Amelio has 142.2 million. 

The original Tiktokroom shared the news on their Instagram page, and netizens were divided in their reaction. 

Some were happy for Lame, while others opined D’Amelio deserved to have more followers than him. 

“Not gonna lie, he is boring. My biggest flex is I never followed him,” wrote one user in the comments section. Another user commented, “Didn’t he body shame and mock Asian people’s features?”

A third user noted that the TikTok queen probably didn’t care about TikTok like that anymore, for she was busy doing her own thing.

Khaby Lame dethrones Charli D'Amelio with 142.5 million followers on TikTok. (Source: Instagram)

Some people even claimed that Lame probably bought the followers to dethrone D’Amelio. So far, neither Lame nor D’Amelio has reacted to the news. 

Khaby Lame and Charli D’Amelio’s Rise to Fame

For the longest time, D’Amelio was the reigning queen of TikTok, and her popularity on the site was unrivaled. 

She joined the app in 2019 and amassed many followers thanks to her viral dance routines. 

In 2020, she became the first person to hit 100 million followers and released a video to achieve the milestone. 

The TikToker thanked her fans who helped in her TikTok journey and TikTok for making this achievement possible for her. She said the whole thing felt surreal and asked fans to continue supporting her.

For the longest time, it seemed like no one could come close to the TikTok queen; that was until April 2021, when Lame joined the app. 

Before joining the app, Lame was a factory worker, but during COVID-19, he lost his job. So he made videos on the app during his free time instead of looking for another job. 

Lame is famous for his dialogue-free parody clips, trademark expressions, and hand palm gesture.

His sense of humor increased his popularity rapidly that the social media analytics site, Socialblade, revealed he was gaining an average of three million followers a month compared to D’Amelio’s one million. 

Khaby Lame Loved Making People Laugh since He Was Kid

During an interview, Lame shared he had a passion for comedy and making people laugh since he was a kid.

He was inspired after watching his idol Will Smith on Prince of Bel-Air. 

“I looked at Smith and said I wanted to become like him. I wanted to make people laugh because most creators focused on becoming rich or famous. That was not what I wanted,” said Lame about why he chose comedy. 

He added he started making videos because he loved them and wanted to make people laugh. 

According to him, the key to his success was enjoying what he did before letting others enjoy his creations. He loved reading comments about how he had made someone’s day better. It motivated him to be consistent.