Khaby Lame
@khaby.lame TikTok
A year of bedroom sketches at a few hundred thousand views, then one silent gesture: 100M followers in 17 months
Khaby Lame started posting on TikTok on March 15, 2020, after losing his job in Italy’s first lockdown. For a year he posted about two sketches a day to a modest audience. From March 2021 he answered other people’s over-complicated life hacks with a stitch, a simple fix and an open-palm shrug, never saying a word. His median went from 335K to 20.5M per video; he reached 100M followers in August 2021 and became the most-followed person on TikTok in June 2022.
- Report
- v1
- Data as of
- 2026-11-09
- Sample
- 1326 videos
At a glance
- What it is
- Silent reactions to over-complicated life hacks.
- Who watches
- Global; many children, by his account.
- How it earns
- Brand deals through his company; $9.9M–20M a year by press estimates.
- How it broke out
- Stitch replies from late 2020; the gesture from March 2021; 100M by August.
TikTok followers Fact
162.9M
flat at 160–163M since 2024
Months to 100M Fact
17
Mar 2020 → Aug 2021, TikTok’s count
Median after vs before Derived
61×
20.5M against 335K
Est. earnings, 2024 list Estimate
$20M
Forbes Top Creators
Summary
The play
Reply to a video millions have already seen: stitch someone’s over-complicated life hack, do it the obvious way, and end on a blank stare and open palms. No words, so it works in every country.
Can you copy it? Our read
The growth path has two halves you can learn from: a year of posting twice a day with no real hit, then a format that answered other people’s viral videos without a word. The scale that followed (TikTok’s promotion, a manager, global brands) is not something to copy.
- What it takes
- A face that carries a joke without words, and a year of patience.
- Startup cost
- A phone and a bedroom at the start; a manager and a company later.
- Time to a verdict
- About two a day for the first year; the format arrived in month 12.
- Window
- The silent reply is taken. The transferable part is reacting to what is already spreading, in a way that needs no language.
Key findings
A year at a few hundred thousand
722 videos before the gesture, about two a day, had a median of 335K (lifetime views, so an upper bound). He had 50K followers after two months and 1M after eleven. See play 2.2 (subscribers)
The reply, not the sketch
From the first gesture video on March 15, 2021 the median is 20.5M, 61 times higher. 56 of his videos passed 100M views; the first, on March 27, 2021, was a stitch. See play 2.1 (subscribers)
Then a plateau
Followers have been at 160–163M since 2024. Posting slowed to about one a week, and the median since 2024 is 14.2M. See play 3.1 (subscribers)
What this channel is
- Platform
- TikTok, with Instagram and YouTube
- Format
- Silent stitch replies
- On camera
- Khaby, alone
- Team
- Manager and business partner (reported)
- First upload
- Mar 15, 2020
- Length
- Median 15 seconds
Every number is tagged
- Fact straight from public data
- Derived calculated from facts
- Estimate from published pay ranges
- Self-reported what the creator says
- Our read our judgement
01How it happened
How the follower count grew
- TikTok 162.94M
TikTok followers. Points up to August 2021 are from TikTok’s own announcement of his 100M milestone; October 2021 to June 2025 are press reports (CNN, Guinness World Records, Forbes); the last point is measured.
- under 1×
- 1–3×
- 3–10×
- 10× and up
Each bar is one video in the order posted. Gaps are breaks in posting.
| Phase | Dates | Videos | Format | Median views |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mar 15 – Nov 21, 2020 | 535 | Bedroom sketches with Italian captions, about two a day; 50K followers by May 14 | 279K |
| 2 | Nov 22, 2020 – Mar 13, 2021 | 187 | Stitches and duets of other users; “the backpack one”, 24.2M, his first viral video; 1M followers on February 22 | 464K |
| 3 | Mar 14 – Aug 12, 2021 | 113 | The silent gesture on other people’s life hacks; captions move to English in April; 100M followers on August 12 | 45.4M |
| 4 | Aug 13, 2021 – Jun 22, 2022 | 110 | About two a week, with celebrities and labelled brand posts; most-followed on TikTok on June 22–23, 2022 | 39.3M |
| 5 | Jun 23, 2022 – Nov 2026 | 381 | One or two a week; followers flat at 160–163M since 2024 | 13.1M |
Hottest and coldest
Top 5 by views
- Cm on bro 🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾🤲🏾!! #learnfromkhaby #learnwithtiktok #imparacontik...2021-06-30361M
- Could be the new Khaby ?🤣🤣 👩🏿🦱 🤲🏾 Potrebbe essere il nuovo Khaby? #l...2021-08-22323M
- Today is my birthday, but I can’t get inside. Thank you for all the m...2026-03-09314M
- Lol 🤦🏿♂️ #learnfromkhaby #LearnWithTikTok #ImparaConTikTok2021-06-09305M
- Bro why you ruined a T-shirt ?👕😔It was so easy.... - Fratello perché ...2021-05-12287M
Bottom 5 by views
- #duetto con @hassanverinov #foryoupage #foryou #comedy2020-09-0727.2K
- Questa è per te george spero che adesso sei in un posto migliore ( la...2020-06-08112K
- La persona dopo la @ ti deve il MC #foryoupage #foryou #comic #comedy...2020-08-17113K
- raga finalmente siamo arrivati a 50k, grazie per sostenermi tutti i g...2020-05-14114K
- #foryoupage #foryou #comdey #uomonero2020-05-12116K
The five most-viewed are all the silent reply: “Cm on bro” (361M, June 2021), “Could be the new Khaby?” (323M), a 2026 birthday video (315M), “Lol” (305M) and “Bro why you ruined a T-shirt?” (287M). Since the gesture, the coldest are posts that are not a reply: an untitled March 2021 clip (329K), a talent-show promotion (2.3M), “No more social for today” (2.3M), his first time hosting (2.5M) and “First day as postman” (2.6M). Our read
Reading the numbers
Derived
335K
median views in his first year
722 videos before March 14, 2021; lifetime views.
Fact
1M → 100M
followers, February 22 to August 12, 2021
TikTok’s own milestones.
Fact
June 2022
most-followed person on TikTok
About 142.8M, per Guinness World Records.
In the creator’s words Self-reported
It all started during the first lockdown: I had recently lost my job, so I decided to start recording in my bedroom.
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