The Top Virtual Instagram Influencers in 2021

Even more virtual influencers have emerged this year. They are in high demand and becoming a powerful asset in influencer marketing closing an increasing number of deals with brands. Technology constantly develops, making it easier to create virtual influencers.

According to the new presentation by Mark Zuckerberg at the Connect event, Facebook (now Meta) is betting on virtual worlds and planning to invest a lot of resources in attracting developers and creators who will make content for the metaverse.

For our third Top of Instagram Virtual Influencers research, we decided to take a closer look at how virtual influencers are adapting to the new technology trends.  

To get a more complete picture, we again invited Christopher Travers, a virtual influencer expert and the Founder of VirtualHumans.org, to join us for the study.

In this study, we collected the top 129 virtual influencers on Instagram at the moment alongside the latest opinions of some of the most knowledgeable creators in the virtual influencer industry.

Their answers give a clear understanding that virtual influencers or virtual humans, as some people refer to them, are the real pioneers of the metaverse, as they dive headlong into everything new and virtual.

Key Findings:

• Virtual Influencers have engagement rates almost three times higher than the engagement rates of real influencers. This trend is consistent for the second year in a row, indicating that followers better engage with virtual influencers’ content.

• The core audience of virtual influencers is women between 18 and 34 years old (44.76%). There is also a large number of younger people between 13-17 years old (14.64%). That’s double the average of regular influencers, whose young audience averages about 7% of their entire audience.

• 49% of top virtual influencers have not posted in the last 30 days. In our 2019 study, we discovered that 23% of influencers hadn’t posted in the last 30 days.

• 57% of virtual influencers have negative follower growth. This may indicate that either their accounts are losing bots or audiences don’t like the content and unfollow the influencers. Last year this figure was 48%.

• The most followed virtual influencer in 2021 is Lu de Magalu hailing from Brazil. Her Instagram account @Magazineluiza has 5.7M followers and her TikTok has another 5.6M followers on top.

• The fastest-growing virtual influencer in 2021 is The Nobody Sausage. Its page accumulated over eight million followers on TikTok and repeated its success on Instagram gaining 2.4M followers just in one year.

• To stay competitive, virtual influencers must produce more video content.

• 16% of virtual influencers participated in the NFT projects.

Christopher Travers on The State of the Virtual Influencer Industry

“The growth of the virtual influencer industry in 2021 has been largely defined by the addition of video to the transmedia stack. 

Many incredible virtual influencers earned millions of followers on TikTok this year, such as the notorious FN Meka and the likes of Bum Bailey, Nobody Sausage, Apoki, Puff Puff, and more.

Stand-out creators found favor on YouTube and Twitch, such as CodeMiko, Blu, ItsVi0let, and even Anna Oop. Notably, the emergent VTuber industry continues an exponential growth path as anime video personas execute on a clear product-market fit with the average fan, driven by a definite increase in inexpensive, consumer-ready VTuber software. 

I cannot understate the prevalence of the video medium for creating immersive, emotional, and attention-keeping experiences.

Through video, you can tell a better story and inherently give your virtual characters more life—this medium is crucial for building fandom! On our end, our production team has fully adopted a focus on video, and I recommend every team in the space also do the hard, but rewarding work of figuring out how to leap into video as well.

While our space is not a competitive one and instead of one of collective growth and opportunity, you still risk getting left behind at the hands of the algorithms showing an overwhelmingly increased bias for video-centric content. In 2022, crack how to be video-first, photo-second. Don’t be afraid to reach out to virtual influencer teams succeeding on your goal video platforms, and if you’re someone who has cracked the video virtual influencer medium, do be receptive to collaboration and insight sharing with other teams in the space. When one of us wins, we all win. See you all, in motion, in 2022,” Christopher Travers shared his vision of the state of the industry.

Virtual Influencers Engagement Rate

Virtual Influencers have engagement rates almost three times higher than the engagement rates of real influencers. This trend is consistent for the second year in a row indicating that followers better engage with virtual influencers’ content.

Reflection by Moriya Takayuki, CEO Aww Inc., creator of Imma.Gram

1. Are you planning to make a video or are you already doing so? What are your thoughts on this?

Our virtual humans have platforms outside of Instagram, like Twitter, TikTok, Douyin, Red.  They have videos up on those platforms.

From a technical point of view, there are videos using newer technology, like a full-body CG moving in the Unreal space, so the video has become more prominent than still images.

A single video now has millions of views, and real-time video that we can use to do live streams is on its way.

2. What are your thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? Do you see your influencer in this universe, if so, in what role?

I feel that the metaverse will definitely grow. The growth from blockchain to NFT is something I feel firsthand, and our company has made a big move along that axis. Beyond that, there will be a change in community culture and the growth of DAO.

Zuckerberg is creating a new place for communication in the metaverse, and our virtual humans will become something that people will inevitably need in the metaverse, and I believe that this will create value for us as a brand.

I believe that what we will create will become an indispensable part of the metaverse.

3. Do you work with brands? Have you noticed a rise/fall in interest in virtual influencers from brands lately?

Yes, we get contacts to work together on a daily basis, and we are working together on some annual plans with some brands.

But in actuality, we are trying to do less and less of these commercial jobs. 

We are picky about who we work with and often turn requests down. In fact, we turn down almost 70% of the collaboration requests we get.

I feel people and brands’ interest in our virtual humans are growing by the day, as I am being contacted by people from various fields constantly.

4. What is your opinion on NFTs? Have you done, or are planning to do, NFTs with your virtual influencers in the near future?

I can’t say much but we have a big project coming soon. Also, NFT has been tested for over a year now and we are looking for a point where we can make a big move. We have been using NFT all around our staff, so we have accumulated a lot of knowledge about it.

We are about to make our move, so please look forward to it in 2022.

5. What are some other ways to monetize virtual influencers besides brand advertising?

There are many. Rather, in our company, the percentage outside of brand advertising has grown. There are various ways to create businesses through the community of fans in Japan, rather than solely an icon business. We want to build this new way of business, and share it with the world.

The Audience of Virtual Influencers by Age and Gender

The audience of virtual influencers by age and gender

The core audience of virtual influencers is women between 18 and 34 years old (44.76%). There is also a large number of younger people between 13-17 years old (14.64%). That’s double the average of regular influencers, whose young audience averages about 7% of their entire audience.

The numbers have remained virtually unchanged since last year, despite the fact that 50 new virtual influencers have been added to the top list.

Reflection by Reggie Ba-Pe III, Co-founder of Club Media and Avastar, the virtual talent agency managing Ruby 9100M

1. Are you planning to make a video or are you already doing so? What are your thoughts on this?

Yes, we’ve already started making videos for our Avatars. We will be releasing them next year but you can see our first music video for Ruby 9100M. A debut music video for Maie will be released later this month.

2. What are your thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? Do you see your influencer in this universe, if so, in what role?

There’s really very little information available on how Meta will operate. We believe in an open, inclusive, and transparent metaverse and we hope any metaverse or digital space we engage with shares these same values.

3. Do you work with brands? Have you noticed a rise/fall in interest in virtual influencers from brands lately?

We’ve worked with a number of brands with our virtual beings. Most recently with the global Adidas team with Ruby’s collaboration but also with several multinational brands in various capacities.

4. What is your opinion on NFTs? Have you done, or are planning to do, NFTs with your virtual influencers in the near future?

We’ve sold a number of NFTs on a variety of marketplaces. From JPGs, music singles, music videos, and virtual fashion pieces. NFTs will be an important part of our overall strategy moving forward. 

5. What are some other ways to monetize virtual influencers besides brand advertising?

Events, merchandise, experiences, exclusive content, and plenty more.

Reflection by Cameron-James Wilson, founder of The Diigitals

1. Are you planning to make a video or are you already doing so? What are your thoughts on this?

Over the past few years, we’ve experimented with how to approach video content, whether we do it with traditional 3D animation or utilizing machine learning to change the face of a physical actor. We successfully launched several videos as part of a campaign with our model Dagny and Mercedes-Benz, which uses Deep Fake technology, and now we are looking at how to scale that process across all our characters.

2. What are your thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse? Do you see your influencer in this universe, if so, in what role?

Influencers are a part of every social platform, so I doubt his vision of the Metaverse will be any different. I’m excited to see the diverse forms these new Virtual Influencers take, as we have already seen so many incredible designs, from 2D manage inspired Vtubers to hyper-real virtual models. It will also be interesting to see how characters with existing IP will translate to this new space, having already seen Barbie transition to YouTuber and a virtual influencer.

3. Do you work with brands? Have you noticed a rise/fall in interest in virtual influencers from brands lately?

We have a large portfolio of many different brand collaborations, and over the past few years have seen fluctuations in demand. With so much interest in NFTs and the metaverse, brands are keener than ever to engage in the space. Brands are also much more educated about the space, compared to two or three years ago. They have a much better understanding of working with digital models and generally approach us with exciting ideas, clearer goals, and defined messaging.

4. What is your opinion on NFTs? Have you done, or are planning to do, NFTs with your virtual influencers in the near future?

We’ve worked on several NFT projects, all of which were alongside one of our partners Tafi. Our initial collection was incredibly valuable in learning about the space and involved a wide range of different NFTs and varied prices. The second project we experimented with was an NFT which, of resold, all of its profits would go to the charity Stop AAPI Hate. This then led to being a part of a much larger project with Coco-Cola, which raised over $500,000 for Special Olympics International.
https://www.coca-colacompany.com/news/coca-cola-nft-auction-fetches-more-than-575000

5. What are some other ways to monetize virtual influencers besides brand advertising?

I’m currently obsessed with Vtubers, who open up whole new ways to generate income via streaming. They’re totally different from the characters we currently create, but I love their unique personalities and manga aesthetics.
Of course, Virtual Influencers can launch their own collections, even virtual collections via companies like DressX. I’m sure in the future we’ll see them write books, star in movies or games, and make money just like any other classic celebrity.

Top Instagram Virtual Influencers List

Top 20 Virtual Influencers on Instagram

Discover the most followed virtual Instagram accounts, ranging from models and travel influencers to musicians and vloggers. These virtual influencers attract huge audiences and give their followers engaging and inspiring content.

For each of the virtual Instagram influencers on our list, we provide key metrics like the total number of subscribers, quality audience, and Engagement rate.

1. @magazineluiza

Quality Audience: 3.5M
Followers: 5.6M (grew by 1 million followers in the last year)
ER: 0.05%
Country: Brazil
Operator: Magazine Luiza
Brand mentions (180 days): 29 brands
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@magalu
About: Lu first came to life on YouTube in August 2009 to promote iBlogTV on behalf of Magazine Luiza (“Magalu”). Since 2009, Lu has used her massive, rapidly growing social media accounts to feature unboxing videos, product reviews, and software tips on behalf of the company, one of the largest Brazilian retail companies. Magalu saw $552M in profit in 2019.
Lu can be seen on the navigation bar of Magalu’s website and Magalu’s Android and iPhone apps, and commands a massive following, particularly on Facebook, making her the most visible virtual human in the world.
While Lu may have a massive following, it’s important to note her notoriety and reach are reserved for Brazil.

2. @lilmiquela

Quality Audience: 1.9M
Followers: 3.1M (grew by 202k followers in the last year)
ER: 1.78%
Country: United States
Operator: Brud
Brand mentions (180 days): 47 brands (Del Taco, Givenchy Official, Bershka, Dior, Olive Garden)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lilmiquela
About: Miquela took the world by storm in 2016 when she mysteriously started posting her life on Instagram. Miquela is a kind soul and ambitious dream chaser who uses her transmedia platform to spread awareness, advocate for equality, and advertise for forward-thinking brands. She’s highly fashionable and respected by many clothing brands, and she’s even gone as far as to launch her own clothing line called Club 404 Not Found (now discontinued or paused).

Miquela released her first single, titled “Not Mine,” in August 2017. Her songs have since amassed 15M+ net streams across platforms.

Miquela is the project of Brud, founded by Trevor McFedries and Sara DeCou. In addition to Lil Miquela, Brud also created Blawko and Bermuda. Lil Miquela and her friends have been represented by PR firm Huxley and have received ~$30M in investment at a $125M valuation from Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, M Ventures, BoxGroup, Chris Williams, Founders Fund, and WME.

In October 2021 Dapper Labs, the NFT startup behind NBA Top Shot, which was recently valued above $7.5 billion, have purchased virtual influencer startup Brud and will be bringing the entire 32-person team aboard.

3. @nobodysausage

Quality Audience: 1.4M
Followers: 2.4M (grew by 2.4M followers in the last year)
ER: 8.38%
Country: Brazil
Operator: Kael Cabral
Brand mentions (180 days): 5 (BTS official, EarthWind and Fire, Lemonade insurance)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nobodysausage
About: Sharing choreographies of hot songs in videos of up to 30 seconds, colorful and stylish sausages make Internet users happy and hypnotized. The Nobody Sausage page accumulated over eight million followers on TikTok and repeated its success on Instagram gaining 2.4M followers just in one year.

The Nobody sausage has already taken part in two commercial challenges on TikTok in collaboration with Samsung and Grupo Natalia Beauty.

4. @thegoodadvicecupcake

Quality Audience: 2M
Followers: 2.4M (declined by 191k followers in the last year)
ER: 1.34%
Country: United States
Operator: Buzzfeed
Brand mentions (180 days): 1 (Andrews McMeel)
About: The Good Advice Cupcake is a character of short cartoons that produces Buzzfeed. Cupcake is on Instagram to give you some good advice. But most importantly, it will lift your spirit with kind and complimentary words. 

5. @barbie

Quality Audience: 1.3M
Followers: 1.8M (grew by 286K followers in the last year)
ER: 0.68%
Country: United States
Operator: Mattel
Brand mentions (180 days): 11 (Netflix, Spotify, US Open, Pandora)
About: Barbie meets the definition because she adopts a first-person personality on YouTube that emulates a Vlogger, and in that medium, she does not break the illusion by drawing attention to Mattel — it’s just her life and her world. This is called a VTuber, and she’s a leading example for other virtual influencers on YouTube.

6. @guggimon

Quality Audience: 1.5M 
Followers: 1.2M (grew by 68k followers in the last year)
ER: 0.92%
Country: United States
Operator: Superplastic
Brand mentions (180 days): 11 (Louis Vuitton, Fortnite, Gucci)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jankyandguggimon 1.9M
About: Guggimon has stated he’s a “fashion horror artist & mixtape producer with obsessions: handbags, axes, designer toys, Billie Eilish, & The Shining ” Superplastic is the world’s premier creator of animated synthetic celebrities, designer toys, and apparel. Home to Janky & Guggimon. Superplastic was created by artist and entrepreneur Paul Budnitz (Kidrobot, Ello, Budnitz Bicycles). Legendary toy artist Huck Gee oversees art and production. A bunch of other brilliant people of all colors, shapes, and sizes also work there.

This year Superplastic raised $20M to expand its cartoon influencer universe.

Superplastic‘s investors include Google Ventures, Index Ventures, Founders Fund, Craft Ventures, and individual investors like Jared Leto, Justin Timberlake. The $20 million Series A round brings the company’s total capital raised to $38 million.

Fortnite added Guggimon and Janky skin to its battle royale metaverse. Skins are cosmetic items in Fortnite that players can add to their in-game character to change their appearance. They can be purchased on the Epic Store using Fortnite’s in-game currency, V-Bucks.

Superplastic partnered with Christie’s to auction NFTs for virtual celebrities Janky & Guggimon.

7. @janky

Quality Audience: 571K
Followers: 932K (grew by 179K followers in the last year)
ER: 0.63%
Country: United States
Operator: Superplastic
Brand mentions (180 days): 10 (RedBull, Supreme, Fortnite)
About: Janky is owned by Superplastic. Superplastic is the world’s premier creator of animated synthetic celebrities, designer toys, and apparel. 

8. @knoxfrost

Quality Audience: 426K
Followers: 700K (declined by 176k in the last year)
ER: 1.13%
Country: USA
About: Knox Frost is a 20-year-old robot living in Atlanta, Georgia. His decision to start sharing on Instagram brings him turmoil, as he receives tens of thousands of comments telling him he’s “not real.” Despite difficulty ‘processing’ the internet’s mixed reactions to his existence, Knox perseveres on his life’s mission: to fit in.

Knox Frost has partnered with global organizations from the World Health Organization to Rock the Vote. Knox has appeared in Forbes, Business Insider, AdAge, Fortune, Adweek, Buzzfeed, Mashable, Dazed, Betches, CNN, and more.

Knox Frost didn’t have new posts in his account since June 27, 2021.

9. @minniemouse

Quality Audience: 616K
Followers: 700K (declined by 22k in the last year)
ER: 2.39%
Country: USA
Operator: Disney
About: Minnie Mouse is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. As the longtime sweetheart of Mickey Mouse, she is an anthropomorphic mouse with white gloves, a bow, polka-dotted dress, and low-heeled shoes occasionally with ribbons on them.

10. @kda_music

Quality Audience: 421K
Followers: 574K (grew by 37k in the last year)
ER: 26.7%
Country: USA
Operator: Riot Games
About: K/DA is a virtual K-pop girl group consisting of four themed versions of League of Legends characters: Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai’Sa.

K/DA was developed by Riot Games, the company behind League of Legends, and unveiled at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship with an augmented reality live performance of their first song, “Pop/Stars”.

A music video of the song uploaded to YouTube subsequently went viral, surpassing 100 million views in one month, and reaching 400 million views, as well as topping Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart.

The conception of K/DA was based on Riot’s expressed desire to create more musical content in the future, with the characters that were chosen based on K-pop archetypes. The group was created to promote the League World Championship and to sell in-game K/DA skins of the characters in League of Legends. K/DA has subsequently achieved significant popularity both within and beyond the League of Legends fandom, and received critical acclaim, especially for their performance during the World Championship and the impact of gaming on the music scene.

11. @anymalu_real

Quality Audience: 471K
Followers: 514K (grew by 8.8K followers in the last year)
ER: 0.51%
Country: Brazil
Operator: comboestudio.com.br
Brand mentions (180 days): 5 (Wizard by Pearson, ALG, Tudu)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@anymalu_real
About: Brazil media personality, YouTuber, and Instagrammer.

12. @thalasya_

Quality Audience: 264K
Followers: 481K (declined by 21.7K followers in the last year)
ER: 1.02%
Country: Indonesia
Operator: unknown
Brand mentions (180 days): no brand mentions
About: First Indonesian virtual influencer.

Thalasya Pov didn’t have new posts in her account since June 10, 2020.

13. @anna_cattish

Quality Audience: 415K
Followers: 480K (declined by 13.5K followers in the last year)
ER: 1.23%
Country: Russia
Operator: Unknown
Brand mentions (180 days): 2 (Superplastic, Gallery Nucleus)
About: Anna is an illustrator and animator from Russia. Anna’s art style is cute and edgy with a little bit of attitude.

Many of her pieces are sketches and cartoons that are created through digital media, and she shares a lot of her daily work through Instagram. She is also a part of a visual label called Honkfu.

14. @seradotwav

Quality Audience: 345K
Followers: 424K (declined by 42.5K followers in the last year)
ER: 28.36%
Country: USA
Operator: Riot
Brand mentions (180 days): 2 (Superplastic, Gallery Nucleus)
About: Seraphine, League of Legends’ newest character, promotion for Riot’s upcoming champion and skins.

Riot went so far as to create real-life social media accounts for her character, and in those, Seraphine is a bedroom producer who lives in our world. She has a cat named Bao, she likes to do face masks, and she is a fan of K/DA. She is a café worker who wants to pursue music. Her Twitter became a venue for telling her backstory. One day she posts a cover of K/DA’s “Pop/Stars” and gets “noticed” by the group; the next thing you know, she’s flying out to help record with the group.

Seraphine didn’t have new posts in her account since November 8, 2020.

15. @dayzeeandstaxx

Quality Audience: 472K
Followers: 568K (grew by 259K followers in the last year)
ER: 0.53%
Country: United States
Operator: Superplastic
Brand mentions (180 days): 10 (Louis Vuitton, Nike, Gucci)
About: Dayzee is owned by Superplastic. Superplastic is the world’s premier creator of animated synthetic celebrities, designer toys, and apparel. 

16. @noonoouri

Quality Audience: 296K 
Followers: 384K (grew by 32.5K followers in the last year)
ER: 1.9%
Country: France
Operator: Opium Effect
Brand mentions (180 days): 87 brands (Versace, Miumiu, TikTok, Trussardi, Bulgari, Netflix, Lacoste, Siemens)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realnoonoouri 
About: Noonoouri is a cartoony, 19-year-old fashionista hailing from Munich, Germany. She has worked with most of the top brands in the fashion industry and continues to wow consumers with her unique look. Noonoouri balances her platform between social good and promotion. She’s vegan, advocates for sustainable fashion, and refuses to wear furs while making countless cameos with fashion brands all around the world. The creator of this Noonoouri has said the primary goal of this virtual influencer is to provide entertainment while informing audiences in a new medium

17. @imma.gram

Quality Audience: 214K
Followers: 297K (grew by 142.3K followers in the last year)
ER: 3.18%
Country: Japan
Operator: Aww Inc
Brand mentions (180 days): 11 brands (IKEA Japan, Burberry, Adidas Tokyo, TikTok, Y’s Official)
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@imma.tokyo
About: Imma is Japan’s first virtual model. She is easily identifiable with her signature pink bob, but it’s not easy to tell she’s virtual. Imma enjoys collaborating with top artists and brands to display her realness and authenticity in a world of reality-lacking, digital social media, making her a contrarian voice for the future.

Imma was selected as a “New 100 Talent to Watch” by Japan Economics Entertainment. She also appears in numerous headlines, from fashion to business magazines, on TV, and online. Imma’s name is from the Japanese word “ima,” which translates as “now.”

18. @realqaiqai

Quality Audience: 278K
Followers: 353K (increased by 199K followers in the last year)
ER: 1.22%
Country: USA: 
Brand mentions (180 days): 4 (Adobe, Dreamworks)
About:  Qai Qai is a doll belonging to Alexis Olympia Ohanian, the daughter of American professional tennis player and winner of 23 Grand Slam titles, Serena Williams, and co-founder of Reddit and Initialized Capital, Alexis Ohanian 

19. @leyalovenature

Quality Audience: 290K
Followers: 332K (increased by 83K followers in the last year)
ER: 0.86%
Country: 
Operator:  Cosmiq Universe
Brand mentions (180 days): 
About: Virtual avatar artist Leya Love connects the dots between all living beings and present consciousness. As an ambassador for the World Awareness Movement #WAM and as a speaker at the Global Youth Summit Asia in 2020/21 for Human Rights.

LeyaLove is created by Cosmiq Universe, founded by Annika Kessel and Bruno Stettler. Cosmiq also created Aya Stellar, the first interstellar avatar traveling through space to earth, landing on 22/2/22 to bring back the secret of life. Cosmiq Universe has received USD >1.7m investments in seed rounds so far by international investors. A large community of like-minded individuals intently set on realizing Leya’s and Aya’s vision and creating a more loving place on earth to be.

20. bee_nfluencer

Quality Audience: 215K
Followers: 279K (declined by 4.4K followers in the last year)
ER: 7.13%
Country: France
Operator: Foundation de France
Brand mentions (180 days): 1 (Guerlain)
About: Bee, while not human, is the first influencing bee. He or she wants to please brands around the world to raise money to save the bees, many of which disappear every year. B says, “I need you: the more Instagram followers I have, the more brands will be interested and the more money I will make.” Projects are selected by B and will be funded by paid partnerships on B’s Instagram account.

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