Squid Game star Jung Ho-yeon is now the Korean actress with the highest number of followers on Instagram.
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Jung has gained significant international recognition following her breakout role in Netflix’s Squid Game, which is well on its way to becoming the streaming platform’s “biggest show ever”. Since the show’s release last month, the actress has seen her Instagram following count rise from around 400,000 to 13million at the time of writing.
Earlier today (October 4), the 27-year-old mode-turned-actress overtook veteran actress Song Hye-kyo (Descendants of The Sun), who currently has 12million followers on the platform, to become the second-most followed South Korean actress.
Just hours later, Jung’s follower count soon caught up with that of Lee Sung-kyung, another model-turned actress known for roles in Korean dramas such as Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok-joo and Dr. Romantic 2. The Squid Game star now boasts 13million followers on Instagram, as of October 4 at 6pm KST, overtaking Lee’s 12.9million.
Meanwhile, fellow Squid Game co-stars and veteran South Korean actors Lee Jung-jae and Park Hae-soo have recently started their own Instagram accounts. “Is this… how you do it?” wrote Lee in the caption of his first-ever selfie on the social media platform.
Park followed soon after, uploading a selfie of his own. “I have also participated! This is Park Hae-soo,” wrote the actor, adding the hashtags “#SQUIDGAME” in English and Korean.
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Fans have since speculated that Jung had encouraged the veteran actors to start their own Instagram accounts, after she commented on their posts shortly after they had uploaded them. “Yes!!” she wrote on Lee’s post, alongside a series of applause and thumbs up emojis. The actress had also commented “Finally!!!” on Park’s first post with a heart emoji.
In a recent interview with Herald Pop, the actress opened up about her longtime friendship with BLACKPINK’s Jennie. “Jennie was happy for me ever since I told her I was cast in Squid Game,” said Jung, as translated by Soompi. “She sent me a coffee truck, and she actively cheered me on by even uploading to her social media.”