The Story agency, part of the Mobsuccess group, has released its Q1 2025 edition of the Story Charts, highlighting the most influential brands on YouTube, TikTok, and — for the first time — Instagram. Based on a proprietary methodology that blends engagement, visibility, and long-term brand integration on each platform, the rankings offer a snapshot of the brands leading the conversation online.
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Duolingo emerged as the top performers across the three platforms, underlining the dominance of streaming and content-driven brands in the digital sphere.
On Instagram, the inaugural ranking saw Netflix take the top spot with a perfect score of 100/100, followed by Amazon Prime (98) and Voyages Pirates (96). “Netflix is both a love brand and a video powerhouse. With 231 posts and 55 million impressions, the brand generated 16 million interactions this quarter — eight times more than the runner-up,” explained Ken Tan, Director of Story Paris.
Over on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video led the pack with an average score of 86.35, ahead of Unisport (81) and Disneyland Paris (78). According to Tan, Amazon’s strength lies in community engagement: “Users revisit scenes from popular series and share their favorite moments in the comments, something they can’t do directly on the streaming platform.”
On TikTok, Duolingo stole the spotlight, earning a perfect 100/100 score, while Netflix followed in second place (94) and Prime Video took third (89). Duolingo’s success was driven by an unconventional but viral campaign featuring its mascot, Duo. “Following the mock ‘death’ of Duo, the brand generated a wave of attention — daily mentions skyrocketed from 11,000 to 60,000, and it gained over 500,000 new followers,” Tan noted.
These results reaffirm the strategic advantage held by streaming giants on platforms where video content reigns supreme. “On SVOD markets, the dominant players are also top performers on social platforms: YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video. They’re simply leveraging the video programming expertise they’ve already mastered,” said Tan.
A data-driven methodology
The Story Charts are based on a proprietary formula developed by Story, using brand account data and platform-specific KPIs. The formula evaluates three core capabilities:
- Engagement: Including likes, shares, comments, saves, and engagement rate
- Visibility: Total views/impressions, number of posts, growth rate vs. previous quarter
- Platform endurance: Historical follower count and impressions over the past 12 months
While the structure is consistent across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, each platform's weighting varies. For instance, on TikTok, the follower conversion rate (views to follows) accounts for 20% of the final score — twice as much as on Instagram. Meanwhile, content volume is weighted more heavily on Instagram (15%) due to the diversity of formats like carousels and reels, compared to 9% on TikTok.
Luxury brands were excluded from the rankings to avoid skewed comparisons, as most operate international accounts with vastly different benchmarks.
With these findings, the Story Charts Q1 2025 highlight a shifting dynamic in how entertainment, education, and lifestyle brands are reshaping their relationship with digital audiences — one platform at a time.
