What Went Viral In India On Instagram In 2025? Cricket, Nostalgia, Memes, More

If your Instagram feed in 2025 felt like a mix of cricket clips, nostalgic throwbacks, random viral moments and international pop culture slipping into everyday conversations, you weren’t alone. Instagram’s Year-in-Review gives a clearer picture of what really kept India scrolling this year – and it turns out, our online mood shifted more often than we realised. Also Read: How To Control Your Instagram's Algorithm

What went most scrolled on Instagram this year? Check here. Also Read: Instagram Rolls Out AI Translations For Five Indian Languages, Plus New Local Fonts

Instagram 2025: Cricket At The Top

Cricket once again dominated timelines. India’s Champions Trophy win led to weeks of celebrations online, RCB finally lifting the trophy pushed “Ee Sala Cup Namdu” into every meme format possible, and Virat Kohli’s retirement from Test cricket created an emotional wave that lasted beyond the announcement day.

On the other side, the Indian women’s cricket team winning the World Cup kept engagement high, with edits, reels and fan posts continuing long after the tournament ended. Cricket wasn’t just a highlight – it shaped the rhythm of online conversations all year.

What else?

2025 also saw Indian pop culture travel far beyond local feeds. Hanumankind performed at Coachella, Indian celebrities showed up at the Met Gala, and Kolhapuri chappals surprisingly made it to luxury fashion spaces. A.R. Rahman’s music soundtracked more than a few global runways.

At the same time, Indian users were fully invested in global moments – Ed Sheeran’s tour, the Nicki Minaj pose trend, Taylor Swift’s engagement and Cristiano Ronaldo’s engagement all found space on Indian feeds.

Nostalgia and Lo-Fi Aesthetics Ruled Instagram

A major visual shift appeared this year. Instead of high-polish edits, people leaned into grainy digi-cam photos and lo-fi reels. Alongside that came emotional nostalgia – Wake Up Sid scenes, Rockstar songs, Bunny from YJHD, and comfort-movie edits quietly returned as familiar, calming content.

Both Gen Z and millennials embraced this trend, making nostalgia one of the strongest aesthetic choices of 2025.

Viral Faces You Weren’t Expecting

Some of the most shared moments didn’t come from celebrities at all. A girl at the Mahakumbh, instantly compared to the Mona Lisa, became a viral face. A child calling a croissant “Prashant” had the whole country laughing. A Kolhapur mehendi artist ended up on everyone’s explore page after recreating Rihanna’s wedding look. And Sudhanshu Shukla’s journey to the International Space Station brought a rare moment of national pride online.

Comedian Samay Raina also continued to trend as conversations around India’s Got Latent stayed active for weeks.

Beyond the big cultural moments, there were smaller trends that appeared and disappeared but kept engagement high – Veer Pahariya’s “langdi” hook step, the 90-hour workweek debate, Shark Tank India 4 snippets, the “fake wedding” party trend, Labubus memes, turmeric glow hacks, Parineeti Chopra’s “meri body main sensations” clip and the rise of ultra-wide 5120×1080 reels.

These weren’t long-lasting trends, but they filled the everyday scroll with something new to react to.