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The 2026 Met Gala generated a lot of controversy. It also generated a whole bunch of media impressions. And in the social media economy, those impressions are worth a whole lot of money — $1.56 billion worth according to Launch Metrics, which analyzed data from around the world to see who had the biggest (positive) reach, the highest levels of engagement, and on what platforms. Here’s what they found.
Nicole Kidman at the 2026 Met Gala (Chanel)
Regional Performance
The US market dominated, consuming the most Met Gala coverage overall — about $792.1 million worth or 50% of the global total — followed by France ($104.4 million), UK (87.3 million), India (83.7 million) and Brazil (61.3 million).
Voice Type
The overwhelming majority of Met Gala content (84%) came from corporate media groups like Conde Nast, Hearst, and various TV, streaming, and entertainment outlets. Nine percent came from influencers, 4% from celebrities, and 3% from brand partners, which is to say that people were much more interested in what media outlets, celebs, and influencers were saying about Chanel’s Met Gala red carpet moments than they were in what Chanel was saying about themselves, which make sense.
And when it cam to how they consumed that content, Instagram was the most popular platform (44%), followed by TikTok (20%), Facebook (20%), online (websites) (6%) and YouTube (4%).
Media Rankings
Of all the media brands flooding the zone with Met Gala coverage, no one publishes as much as Vogue. Not be a long shot. So it makes sense that they would be number one with an estimated $96.3 million in total media impact value. E! News and ET ranked two and three with $59.5 million and $48.3 million, while Hearst title Cosmopolitan ranked fourth with $31.1 million. This just goes to show how robust Cosmo’s readership is, since they published a mere fraction of the amount Vogue did and with a much smaller staff the night of the event and very limited access and still managed to pull in nearly a third of Vogue’s overall numbers.
When it came to celebrities, K-pop group Aespa was number one with $16.8 million, while group members Karina and Ningning were numbers two and five, respectively, followed by Argentinian-Spanish influencer Georgina Rodriguez, and Chinese singer and actor Cai Xu Kun.
Karina In Prada at the 2026 Met Gala (Getty Images courtesy of Prada)
Ningning in Gucci at the 2026 Met Gala (WireImage courtesy of Gucci)
Winningest Brands
Brands spend a lot of money on the Met Gala — from the cost of the tables, to paying celebrities to be there, to creating custom looks for the red carpet — and while the top ten brands this year were mostly corporate-owned, one independent brand did actually manage to break into the top five: Robert Wun, which is still wholly owned by the designer and his sister and dressed Lisa, Beyoncé, Naomi Osaka, Jordan Roth, and more.
Lisa In Robert Wun (BFA)
Jordan Roth in Robert Wun (BFA)
Naomi Osaka in Robert Wun (BFA)
1. Saint Laurent — $68.5 million across 7.9k placements
2. Chanel – $55.1 million across 7.3k placements
3. Dior – $52.6 million across 5.9k placements
4. Prada – $39.1 million across 4.2k placements
5. Robert Wun – $29 million across 3.5k placements
6. Gucci – $23.6 million across 1.8k placements
7. Balenciaga – $21.2 million across 2.9k placements
8. Thom Browne – $20.3 million across 2.7k placements
9. Mugler – $20.2 million across 2.6k placements
10. Schaparelli – $19.9 million across 3.5k placements
The top five watch and jewelry brands, meanwhile, were Tiffany, Bulgari, Cartier, Swarovski, and Lorraine Schwartz.
Top Celebrity Looks
Launch Metrics also looked at which celebrities had the biggest impact and for which brands.
For the women, the winner was Sabrina carpenter in Dior, followed by Lisa in Robert Wun, Jisoo in Dior, Jennie in Chanel, and Karina in Prada.
Jennie in Chanel at the 2026 Met Gala (courtesy of Chanel)
For the men, it was all about Connor Storrie, who took the first and fifth spots for Saint Laurent and Tiffany, respectively, with by A$AP Rocky in Chanel at number two, followed by Bad Bunny in Zara and Hudson Williams in Balenciaga.
Connor Storrie in Saint Laurent and Tiffany & Co jewelry at the 2026 Met Gala (Getty Images courtesy of Saint Laurent)
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