Instagram’s Biggest Unfollow Week Is Happening Right Now — Here’s Why
2025-12-24
Between Christmas and New Year, something predictable happens on Instagram — and almost nobody talks about it publicly.
Follower counts quietly drop.
Mutuals disappear.
Supporters vanish without warning.
This week isn’t random.
It’s the largest unfollow window of the entire year, and it happens every December like clockwork.
Here’s why.
1. People finally have time to clean house
The last week of December is dead time for most people.
- work slows down
- routines pause
- scrolling increases
- reflection kicks in
That’s when users start asking:
“Why am I following this account?”
Unfollows during this window aren’t emotional — they’re intentional.
2. Creators reset before January (but don’t announce it)
Creators and brands do this quietly.
They:
- remove inactive mutuals
- clean up old follow-for-follow chains
- unfollow accounts that never engaged
- trim bloated following lists
They don’t post about it.
They don’t warn anyone.
They just reset before January.
That’s why the losses feel sudden.
3. Deactivations spike during the holidays
A big chunk of “unfollows” this week aren’t unfollows at all.
When someone deactivates:
- they disappear from your followers
- you may still be following them
- they vanish from future exports
From your perspective, it looks like churn — but it’s actually account removal.
This is one of the most misunderstood parts of end-of-year cleanup.
4. The algorithm encourages pruning
Instagram’s feed is now heavily shaped by:
- engagement quality
- mutual interaction
- favorites and close friends
Following accounts that never interact:
- hurts feed relevance
- dilutes engagement signals
- confuses recommendation systems
People feel this intuitively — even if they don’t know the mechanics.
So they prune.
5. “New Year, New Feed” isn’t a slogan — it’s behavior
You’ll hear it framed as motivation, but what’s really happening is structural.
People want:
- cleaner feeds
- fewer distractions
- higher-quality interactions
This behavior has started circulating as “New Year, New Feed”, and it’s already underway before January even starts.
The unfollow wave happens before the new year — not after.
What you should actually do right now
Don’t panic.
Don’t mass-unfollow blindly.
Don’t use apps that ask for your login.
The smart move is visibility.
If you want to understand what changed:
- who unfollowed
- who deactivated
- who quietly removed you
- who churned during the holidays
Start here:
👉 Full guide: How to clean up your follower list for 2026
And if you want to check safely:
👉 Use Instagram’s official export — not login-based apps
https://dontfollowback.com
Ready to clean your list going into 2026?
If you’re already in reset mode, this is the clean way to do it.
Instead of guessing or mass-unfollowing, start with visibility:
- see who stopped following
- spot deactivated accounts
- identify dead connections
- understand what actually changed
That’s what the New Year, New Feed reset is really about.
👉 The full New Year, New Feed guide (safe, no login)
Want to see who unfollowed you?
If your follower count dropped this week, you’re not imagining it.
This is when most unfollows, deactivations, and silent removals happen. The key is checking safely.
Avoid apps that ask for your Instagram login. They create more problems than they solve.
👉 See who doesn’t follow you back (no login required)
The takeaway
This week isn’t bad luck.
It’s not your content.
It’s not a shadowban.
It’s the calendar.
Instagram’s biggest unfollow week happens right now, every year — quietly, predictably, and without warning.
The creators who understand it don’t panic.
They measure, clean up, and move into January lighter.
That’s the advantage.