If there's one thing the internet loves, it's a boyfriend.
You know what we're talking about. They're the sort of hunky male celebs that cause us to lose our minds on social media. The ones we retweet with reckless abandon, whose Instagram stories we obsess over. We make them into memes and always, always call them "Dad" in the comments. They're just as likely to earn a place in your Tumblr dashboard as they are your swooning daydreams. These are the men who turn your every waking moment on social media into some sort of immersive Tiger Beat experience—in the best way possible. And we've got to say, 2018 was full of 'em.
Whether they're breakouts from Netflix rom-coms or pop stars with abs for days, Olympians with supreme social media game or movie stars wowing us with how woke they are, one thing is for sure: Our thirst was real.
So, to all the boys we loved this year, we thank you. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us in 2019.
If there was a poster boy for internet boyfriends in 2018, it would be Noah Centineo. Thanks to the double whammy of To All the Boys I've Loved Before and Sierra Burgess Is a Loser on Netflix this summer, he became the breakout star of the year. And considering his Instagram went from 0.8 million followers in August to 13.4 million by October, we feel safe in saying he swept the internet BF competition.
That's Michael Bae Jordan to you. Between Black Panther and Creed 2, 2018 was a very good year for people who wanted their feeds full of shirtless photos of the unreasonably attractive actor. Is this our king? You betcha. (Sorry, T'challa.)
No one knew who Henry Golding was before this summer, but thanks to the back-to-back releases of Crazy Rich Asians and A Simple Favor, they sure do now.
A secretive, oft-shirtless, hella artistic musician who also brought the suave as hell Lando Calrissian to life in Solo? Donald Glover was practically tailor-made for the internet's affections.
Whether he was inspiring a frenzy with his "In My Feelings" challenge or simply posting photos like these, Drake had the internet in the palm of his hand yet again in 2018. It was God's plan.
Before the 2018 Winter Olympics, no one knew who figure skater Adam Rippon was. After? Well, that's a different story entirely. Between his enviable friendship with Gus Kenworthy, his sassy social media presence, and that photoshoot with ESPN Magazine for The Body Issue, we were obsessed.
We couldn't get enough of Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk or Jonathan Van Ness after Netflix brought them into our lives this year—and neither could, like, all of Hollywood.
If you have doubts over whether woke bae Riz Ahmed, who kept us entertained and educated all year thanks to press tours for Venom and The Sisters Brothers, belongs on this list, look no further than this Instagram video from October where the shirtless multi-hypenate, who raps under the name Riz MC, is seen vibing to playback in the studio while recording his single "Mogambo." And then look at all the thirsty comments on the post. We rest our case.
Anyone who can convince the internet to make their collaboration with Crocs (!!) sell out is 100 percent an internet boyfriend.
Riverdale fans are wild and they love them some Cole Sprouse. So much so that they forced girlfriend and co-star Lili Reinhart to take a break from social media to get away from their "toxic" trolling.
Honestly, we've just been watching that "Lost in Japan" video on a loop since it came out in October. And you know you have been too.
There are internet boyfriends and then there are internet husbands. And Idris Elba is the latter. That People's Sexiest Man Alive win was long overdue if you ask us and 99 percent of Twitter.
Whether he was battling alt-right trolls on Twitter or making us wonder why Captain America ever bothered to shave in the first place in Avengers: Infinity War, woke bae Chris Evans continued to prove why he'll probably always be an internet boyfriend.
Until Noah Centineo came along and stole his thunder, it seemed like Timothée Chalamet might go down as the internet boyfriend of the year. He stole our hearts all award season long, we waited with bated breath for his next, ultra-rare social media post, and we felt our hearts tinge with jealousy when his relationship with Lily-Rose Depp was confirmed. What about Oliver, Elio?!