How a 59-year-old whom 'nobody recognised' on Met Gala red carpet topped Power Rankings; beat Zendaya, Rihanna, Priyanka

The Met Gala 2025 Power Rankings featured a 59-year-old debutant at the top, beating several Hollywood icons and big names from India.

The recently held Met Gala saw the attendance of some of the top movie stars, pop icons, fashionistas, and even sports stars. The red carpet (blue for this event) was a superstar-studded affair. Earlier this week, the official Power Rankings of the gala were announced, deciphering which star walked away with the most impact on social media. And while many top names were in the fray, a 59-year-old whom hardly anyone recognised on the blue carpet walked away with the plaudits. (

The most popular male star at Met Gala 2025 was a 59-year-old debutant.

The most popular male star at Met Gala

On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter revealed Launchmetrics' findings of which brands and stars earned the most media exposure (in millions) at the 2025 Met Gala. The Met Gala red carpet power rankings show which stars and brands generated the most amount of buzz online and earned the highest revenue. The 2025 rankings put Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan at the top of the men's rankings with $19 million Media Impact Value (MIV). This implies that his red carpet appearance at the gala earned him $19 million through just social media. In the overall list, Shah Rukh was in the third spot, behind only K-pop star Lisa ($21.3 million in MIV) and Thai actor Sarocha Chankimha aka Freen ($19.5 million).

Shah Rukh Khan attends The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" exhibition on Monday, May 5, 2025, in New York. AP/PTI (AP)

Shah Rukh was ahead of some of the biggest global superstars, including Zendaya ($14.3 million) and Rihanna ($13.5 million). Kylie Jenner did not even find a spot on the top 5 women this year. Priyanka Chopra, another Indian who attended the Met Gala, also did not feature in the top 10.

Shah Rukh Khan's Met Gala debut

This was Shah Rukh's first appearance at the Met Gala. The 59-year-old attended the event, dressed in a black ensemble designed by Indian designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee. For his debut appearance at the Met ball, the actor wore a floor-length elongated coat in Tasmanian superfine wool with monogrammed, Japanese horn buttons. Shah Rukh wore a crystal-studded pendant shaped as the letter 'K' in one of the necklaces around his neck, a nod perhaps to his nickname 'King Khan'.

However, as he walked the blue carpet, many fans back home realised that the American media and hosts of the event were oblivious to him. Even as he posed for the shutterbugs, they asked him who he is. "I'm Shah Rukh," the actor simply said. Later, as hosts Teyana Taylor and Ego Nwodim interviewed him and Sabyasachi on the blue carpet, even they seemed oblivious to his fame, asking him how excited he was. It was Sabyasachi who had to set the record straight by calling him 'probably the most famous man in the world'.

Many fans joked about how humbling it must have been for the superstar, while others slammed American journalists for not doing their homework while covering a show with such diverse attendance.