Taylor Swift breaks 50M followers on Instagram, beats Justin Bieber

Taylor Swift has reached an unprecedented social media milestone by gaining 50 million Instagram followers.

Swift, already surpassing the follower counts of fellow celebrities recently making Instagram's top-five list, marked the occasion with a post thanking fans. "I'm pretty sure this is just because I have cute cats though," she joked alongside a screenshot of her profile on Thursday.

The 25-year-old pop star earned the crown as "reigning queen" of Instagram last month, taking the top spot from under reality star Kim Kardashian, but is the first to reach 50 million followers.

With Kardashian's now second on Instagram's list of top-five most popular accounts with 48.4 million followers, the other major players of the social media app include Beyonce (47.5 million), Selena Gomez (46.3 million) and Ariana Grande (44.9 million). Swift's count also far surpasses pop contemporary Justin Bieber, who is close to reaching 41 million followers.