Talk about superfine. This year’s Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Benefit — known colloquially as the Met Gala — saw explosive growth in viewership across platforms in 2025.
As of Wednesday evening, Variety can report that Met Gala videos native to Vogue’s website and YouTube channel have garnered 1.2 billion global views. Each year, the event draws big names in fashion, music and Hollywood to support the Costume Institute and gift social media platforms with days of style discourse.
The May 5 event’s night-of audience grew 109% compared to 2024. The total 1.2 billion figure accounts for replays of some of the Met’s best looks – rocked by Zendaya, Teyana Taylor, Colman Domingo and Zoe Saldana – and represents a 10% worldwide and 23% domestic boost for audience, year-over-year. 184 million minutes of the gala have been viewed on YouTube.
Vogue and its iconic editor Anna Wintour have long been guardians of the gala, this year centered around the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” Author Monica L. Miller (“Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity”) served as guest curator alongside Met mainstay Andrew Bolton.
Wintour’s co-chairs for the gala this year included Colman Domingo, Lewis Hamilton, Variety cover star A$AP Rocky, Pharrell Williams and honorary chair LeBron James. A celebration of Black dandyism, the exhibit was expressed in 12 distinct sections seen as defying a dandy: ownership, presence, disguise, freedom and old fashioned cool among them.
In addition to gala co-chairs, many notable show business types populate the Met’s host committee. Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union, Chappell Roan, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Allen White, Chance the Rapper, Sabrina Carpenter, Cynthia Erivo, Walton Goggins, Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Shaboozy, Anna Sawai, Donatella Versace and Tom Ford were all counted this year.
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