James Charles's Instagram Reels, broken down
Five Reels, 8.1 million views, and one of them runs for over two minutes.
What this is
James Charles has 18,665,779 followers on Instagram, read from the profile on 27 September 2026. He is thirty ninth on our list of the biggest Instagram accounts belonging to creators rather than celebrities, athletes or brands. Scrptly analysed his five best-performing Reels.
Five Reels. 8,069,807 views between them. Posted between 30 June and 11 August 2026.
Each line is the transcribed audio from the opening seconds, left exactly as spoken.
“I forget how to be lonely.”
3.0MviewsWatch
“I'm gonna change up my hair, and one of you guys suggested that I should do this, which I am literally obsessed with.”
2.0MviewsWatch
“Oh my God, look at Zara Larsson in this rhinestone butterfly makeup.”
1.2MviewsWatch
“No, I want something to lose, not an illusion.”
1.0MviewsWatch
“Shh.”
939KviewsWatch
These are the longest Reels of any beauty account we have measured
They run 19, 124, 76, 41 and 79 seconds, so 5 minutes 39 seconds in total. The second best is 2 minutes 4 seconds long and did 1,955,915 views, which means people watched a two minute hair transformation two million times.
The shortest of the five is also the biggest. Nineteen seconds, 2,956,155 views, and it is the one selling something.
Two of the five are a music launch
His best Reel and his fourth best both promote an original song. One is a behind the scenes clip with the lyric over it, the other is a live performance in an empty theatre. Together they did 3,951,283 views, which is 49 percent of his five-Reel total.
Neither opens by announcing a release. Both open inside the song, on a line that works as a sentence whether or not you know a single is coming.
The quietest one still did 939 thousand
The fifth is an ASMR makeup routine and its entire opening is one word: "Shh." It is the clearest hook on the page. A single syllable that tells you exactly what kind of video this is and asks you to turn the sound up.
The hooks he uses
| Hook pattern | What it does | From which Reel |
|---|---|---|
| Open inside the lyric | A line from the song, used as a sentence rather than as a promotion. It works before the viewer knows anything is being sold. | His best performer, 3.0M views. |
| Credit the audience for the idea | "One of you guys suggested this" makes the viewer a participant before the video has started. | The hair transformation, 2.0M views. |
| One syllable that sets the format | "Shh." tells you it is ASMR, tells you to turn the sound up, and costs half a second. | The ASMR routine, 939K views. |
What you can copy
- Length is not the constraint people think it is. Two million people watched a two minute video here.
- Sell from inside the thing. His song promotion opens on a lyric, not on a release date.
- Say the audience gave you the idea, when they did. It converts a viewer into a participant in one line.
- A format signal can be one syllable. "Shh" does the work a title card would do, faster.
Questions people ask
How many followers does James Charles have on Instagram?
18,665,779, read from his profile on 27 September 2026. That makes him thirty ninth among Instagram accounts belonging to creators rather than celebrities, athletes or brands.
What is his most viewed Reel?
A 19 second behind the scenes clip from a music video, at 2,956,155 views, posted 31 July 2026. It is the shortest of his five and the best performing. It is linked above.
How long are his Reels?
The five analysed run 19, 124, 76, 41 and 79 seconds, so 5 minutes 39 seconds in total. Three of the five are over a minute, which is unusual among the accounts we have measured.
What does James Charles post about?
Makeup and music in roughly equal measure across his five best. Two promote an original song, two are makeup transformations and one is an ASMR get ready with me.
How were these numbers measured?
Scrptly pulled his recent posts and analysed the five best-performing Reels on 27 September 2026. Each view count is the figure recorded at that moment, not an estimate, and each Reel links out so it can be checked.
Point Scrptly at any creator and get the same breakdown, hooks, structures and the formula underneath.
Analyze a creator freeUse James Charles's formula and structure on your own content. Generate scripts for your brand or your personal account built on the same structure and formula he uses.
Create content