TikTok has exploded in popularity over the last two years but there has to be one video users have liked more times than any other. It may come as a surprise which video that is, and why it captured so many people.
One of the odd things about TikTok is a video doesn’t need to have much purpose to be successful. Providing either a joke, useful information, sex appeal, or something are necessary traits for most online content. Because TikTok posts can be so short, they can honestly be about anything, provided they entertain people. The inclusive nature of the platform, with its challenges and video themes, means many of the biggest videos aren’t even original.
Even with that in mind, it’s still a little surprising that the most liked video on TikTok as of June 2020 is the AhiChallenge video from @justmaiko. The video, like just about every AhiChallenge, is a simple dance to a slow-paced song and many TikTok posters have their own, significantly less popular versions of it. justmaiko’s take on it shows him and his little brother performing the dance on an escalator. As of this writing, the video has 25.3 million likes, beating out the second most liked video on TikTok, a video of someone spilling milk, by about 3 million likes.
Why Is This Video So Popular
Michael Le is a social media star in his own right. He’s been posting dancing videos online for the better part of a decade, and his abilities have earned him praise from big names in the entertainment industry. He has over a million subscribers on multiple platforms and has become so popular as a person that his vlog-based, personal YouTube channel has three times as many subscribers as his dedicated dance channel.
One reason why his AhiChallenge blew up though, is that he’s made a career out of TikTok. He was one of the service’s original content creators before it was a household name. He’s been accruing fans for years, and having viral content that floats into people’s For You feeds isn’t new to him. TikTok’s format and accessibility lend themselves very well to dance videos due to the options users get for music, and the compact length of each post. It makes perfect sense that TikTok would be the platform most likely to be led by a dance video, but in Le’s case, he may actually be part of the reason dance videos are popular on TikTok in the first place.
