Lula added more than 5.1 million Instagram followers in October

Lula added more than 5.1 million Instagram followers in October, a gain of almost 35% that brought the reelected president close to 21 million, according to Social Blade data cited by Ancelmo Gois.

Ancelmo Gois said Lula's account had struggled to expand its reach on social media before the election. The October surge left his Instagram following well above the pre-election level.

Ancelmo Gois did not provide an exact pre-election follower count. The source also left the year unspecified and gave no precise measurement date for the nearly 21 million total. Those omissions limit how precisely readers can compare the endpoint with earlier snapshots.

What does the October gain show?

Social Blade recorded more than 5.1 million new accounts following Lula during October. The increase equaled almost 35% over the period, according to the report.

The added accounts and the percentage measure the same result from two directions: more than 5.1 million new followers and roughly a third more audience. The source presents the endpoint as close to 21 million rather than an exact count.

Lula's pre-election difficulty and the October surge appear in the same report. The source therefore documents a sharp change in the account's monthly trajectory, but not a sustained multi-month growth record. It gives no earlier monthly totals to establish that trajectory.

The plain takeaway: Lula's Instagram following expanded rapidly in October, but the report does not show whether that pace continued afterward.

Where do Lula, Bolsonaro and Flávio stand?

The Social Blade figures cited by Ancelmo Gois also put Jair Bolsonaro at 26.8 million Instagram followers. Flávio's following had climbed to 17.5 million.

• Lula: close to 21 million followers, after adding more than 5.1 million in October.
• Jair Bolsonaro: 26.8 million followers.
• Flávio: 17.5 million followers, after his count jumped.

On those rounded figures, Lula trailed Bolsonaro by about 5.8 million followers. He led Flávio by about 3.5 million. Lula therefore ranked behind the largest of the three political audiences named in the report while holding a clear lead over the third.

Flávio's figure carried no gain amount or percentage. The practical takeaway is that only Lula's momentum can be measured from the source, because Social Blade supplied both an increase and a percentage for his account.

Why did Lula's audience accelerate?

Ancelmo Gois's report does not identify a cause. It does not tie the October increase to a particular post, speech, campaign tactic, paid promotion, platform feature or other event.

The source gives no daily follower progression, audience geography, demographic breakdown or engagement data. It records the timing and scale of the follower gain, but it cannot establish how those new accounts found Lula or what they did after following him.

For marketing teams, the defensible conclusion is descriptive: an account previously described as struggling to grow added more than 5.1 million Instagram followers in one month. The source does not establish why that happened.

Takeaway: Lula's Instagram following grew by more than 5.1 million in October, a nearly 35% increase that left him close to 21 million.

What should marketers watch next?

For brands and agencies tracking political accounts, the immediate benchmark is more than 5.1 million new followers in one month and almost 35% growth. The next useful comparison is whether Lula's total moves above 21 million and whether the roughly 5.8 million gap with Bolsonaro narrows.

Any later update should add the missing year, a specific measurement date and the pre-election baseline. Without those details, the growth can be described clearly but not compared with equal precision across periods.

The next measurement will show whether Lula's Instagram audience holds near 21 million or moves closer to Bolsonaro's 26.8 million.