Given that it's been a full year since STAYC members opened their individual Instagram accounts (they debuted them on May 14 2024), I thought it would be fun and instructive to examine some data and trends related to their follower counts. Thus, I looked up numbers for daily changes in followers from K-Pop Radar and input the figures into a spreadsheet for analysis (as I did for Itzy, Aespa, and Twice previously).
The first chart I generated shows the daily change in Instagram followers for each member:
I also created a chart showing the total number of Instagram followers for each member over time:
Some thoughts and questions for consideration:
- 2024-07-01: There was quite a bit of excitement leading up to the release of Metamorphic. However, said excitement seemed to have faded rather quickly following the album's release. Was this because people generally didn't enjoy "Cheeky Icy Thang"?
- When the members first launched their accounts, Yoon was clearly on top, but she was soon surpassed by Sieun on July 6. What was the cause of this? It's been said that Sieun posts more "provocative" photos.
- 2024-07-22: Isa may have gotten a bump after showing off her new short hair.
- With the exception of Yoon (April 14), we haven't really seen birthday-related spikes.
- Follower additions really seem to have declined in early August 2024. Was this due to promotions for Metamorphic ending, or some other reason?
- 2024-08-21: The release of "Meow" didn't seem to have much impact. Was this simply because it was a Japanese track?
- 2024-10-30: The release of ...l ("GPT") did result in an increase in followers, though it was followed shortly by a significant decrease the next week for some reason.
- 2024-12-24: "Over U, Goodbye" was a special digital single released by Seeun and J. It's not clear if that caused the increase in followers around Christmas, or if it was due to STAYC's appearance at KBS Gayo Daechukje.
- 2025-01-26: There was a noticeable increase in followers starting around this time. It seems that the members decided so start posting on Instagram after having taken a break (except Yoon and J) since December.
- 2025-02-22: Teasers for S ("Bebe") began being released. Why did they help J the most in terms of gaining followers? Or, did it have to do more with STAYC's performance at Waterbomb Manila that day?
- 2025-03-18: The release of S ("Bebe") seemed to have a relatively mild impact on followers, though it appeared to benefit Yoon the most.
- 2025-04-12: We do see a spike in followers around this date, perhaps because of the start of STAYC's Stay Tuned Tour.
- If we look at the standard deviation of daily follower changes for each member, we see that Sieun, and to a lesser extent Yoon, have by far the most variation (i.e., they have the most swings up and down). Why?
- It's interesting that follower counts are clearly divided into two groupings, with Sieun/Yoon/Isa at the top and Seeun/J/Sumin at the bottom. What factors make Sieun/Yoon/Isa more popular?
- What's the explanation behind Sumin having the fewest followers, by a fairly significant margin? This is especially surprising to me given that she's arguably the prettiest member. What can she do to improve her position?
- Do you anticipate any changes to the ranking of member popularity on Instagram? For example, Isa looks like she's closing the gap with Yoon.
For reference, here are links to each member's Instagram accounts: Sumin | Sieun | Isa | Seeun | Yoon | J
Rarami and bartkun, as this forum's biggest SWITHs, I'm especially interested to hear your thoughts.
