Pope Leo XIV joins Instagram, attracts over 12 million followers in 24 hours

This week, Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, officially joined social media platforms X and Instagram.

His account garnered millions of followers as social media users flocked his pages.

On Tuesday, Pope Leo XIV, made his first post on the official X account and the Vatican’s Instagram handle, sharing a message of peace: “Peace be with you all!”

The Instagram post, accompanied by photos from his first days as pontiff, amassed over a million likes in under 24 hours.

The posts translated in seven different languages made his first official footprint on social media.

On Instagram, by the time of penning this piece his followers stood at 12.6 million, barely 24 hours since his first post. On X, the numbers stand at 18.5 million followers.

In a press release, the Dicastery for Communication noted that the official @Pontifex account on X counts a total of 52 million followers across nine languages.

On Instagram, the Pope’s new account will bear the name @Pontifex – Pope Leo XIV, which will be the only official papal account on the platform owned by Meta.

Pope Francis’ @Franciscus account will remain accessible as a commemorative archive, noted the press release.

The late Pope Francis maintained an active presence on both social media platforms, publishing around 50,000 posts, mostly posting excerpts from his speeches on X and images from his public events on Instagram.

During his papacy, Pope Francis’ social media content was viewed over 27 billion times in 2020 alone.

The new pontiff’s decision to engage on X is seen as a continuation of this legacy, aiming to inspire and guide the faithful in an increasingly connected world.

Pope Benedict XVI was the first Pope to open a social media account, sending the first papal tweet when he was 84-years-old, on what was then Twitter, on December 12, 2012.

"Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart,” wrote the German-born Pope.

His 140-character tweet opened the door for the Holy See to embrace the contemporary form of social communication.

Upon his election as the 266th pontiff, Pope Francis used the same Twitter account, sending his first tweet: “Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and ask you to continue to pray for me.”