The annual Met Gala is a culmination of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours of work to make the looks on the carpet happen — and 2026 was no different. Chase Infiniti’s Thom Browne dress was adorned with over 1.5 million stacked sequins, while Kylie Jenner’s Schiaparelli gown took over 11,000 hours to complete the embroidery.
These aren’t the only big numbers to come out of the 2026 Met Gala, though. The numbers are in for the views and engagement generated by the first Monday in May, one of fashion — and Vogue’s — biggest nights of the year. Across Met Monday and the following Tuesday, video views, site traffic, and social engagement across global Vogue channels all saw record highs. There were 1.696 billion global video views across all markets and platforms, a 57% year-on-year increase. Global social engagements reached 108 million across all markets, all platforms, up 24% year-on-year. And Vogue hit one million peak concurrent views during the livestream on YouTube, a record number of viewers.
“This year, we focused on deepening the reader experience across Vogue platforms and on social, while leaning into Vogue’s unique access and authority to tell stories no one else could,” says Chloe Malle, head of editorial content for Vogue US. “Rather than prioritizing volume, we were more intentional about delivering context, perspective, and deeper reporting around the Met Gala. We wanted to answer the question readers are increasingly asking: Why does this matter, and why should I care?”
A family affair: Blue Ivy with her parents, Jay-Z and Beyoncé.
Photo: Hunter Abrams
This year’s livestream was hosted by Ashley Graham, La La Anthony, and Cara Delevingne, while Emma Chamberlain returned as red carpet correspondent on Vogue’s social channels. The livestream total reached 196 million views. Video views saw the steepest increase, with 10 million US total views across Vogue’s owned and operated (O&O) channels and YouTube, a 630% year-on-year increase. Global views also saw a steep uptick, up 543% year-on-year to 11 million total.
Engagement was up across the board on social. US social views across all video and platforms rose 43% year-on-year to 880 million. US social engagements saw an 18% boost to 52 million. Globally, social views across markets and platforms were up 45% to 1.5 billion, and global social engagements rose 24% to 108 million.
Instagram and TikTok were both standout platforms for us this year, says Anna-Lisa Yabsley, who oversees Vogue’s content strategy. “Increasingly, these platforms serve as the front door to Vogue’s coverage, introducing our content to a massive global audience in real time and driving deeper engagement across our broader ecosystem,” she says.
Chase Infiniti in Thom Browne.
Photo: Poupay Jutharat
Kylie and Kendall Jenner inside the Met.
Photo: Poupay Jutharat
On the Vogue site, users engaged with the many ‘get ready with me’ diaries, red carpet breakouts, and trend roundups that emerged from the night. Unique visitors (UVs) were up 39% year-on-year, while engaged minutes increased 36%, as users took their time combing through Gracie Abrams’s disposable camera snaps from inside the Met, Eileen Kelly’s Met afterparty marathon — and, of course, Vogue’s annual best dressed list. “What was interesting was that by day 2, our best dressed gallery had overtaken the red carpet in terms of scale,” says Yabsley. “This indicates readers’ desire for Vogue’s point of view and curation.”
This year, Malle says, there was a shift in the type of content audiences were keen to engage with; traffic wasn’t solely driven by the celebrities attending. “Audiences were just as interested in the broader cultural conversation around the Met Gala as they were in individual celebrities,” she says. “Coverage centered on the significance of the exhibition, the meaning behind the theme, our co-hosts, the experience of the red carpet, and the Gala itself performed especially well. Readers were looking for context and a deeper understanding of the event, not just the fashion moments in isolation.”
This year’s gala also broke the record for the amount of money raised for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, which came to $42 million — up from $31 million the year prior.
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