Inside Jared McCain's TikTok fame: How Duke freshman doubles as a March Madness social media star

David Suggs

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Inside Jared McCain's TikTok fame: How Duke freshman doubles as a March Madness social media star image

Jared McCain hasn't been in school for a full year yet. He's already made his mark on the collegiate landscape, though.

The Duke freshman has propelled himself into prominence in recent months. It's not simply a matter of his silky jump shot, either. Rather, McCain is a distinctly Gen Z athlete, one who is unafraid to show off his wild side on the Internet.

McCain is a budding star on- and off-the-floor, capturing the nation's intrigue from the lens of his iPhone. Couple that with playing for one of sport's most famous — or rather, infamous — brands, and it's little surprise why the Centennial High School graduate is one of men's college basketball's few marquee names.

So, what's to blame for McCain's surging popularity? Social media, of course! Specifically Tik Tok, a platform that thrives on providing snapshots into creators' lives.

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Everyone wants to be a baller. McCain shows the masses just what that entails. Unsurprisingly, he's built quite the following in the process.

With that, here's what you need to know about McCain's rapidly-expanding social media empire, one cultivated primarily on TikTok.

Jared McCain TikTok following

TikTok is an app for the stars. Not only does it draw some of sports, entertainment and pop culture's biggest icons to its golden shores. But it also helps propel those historically left out of those circles into its orbit.

McCain is no exception. The masses have flocked to his page, hoping to catch a glimpse of what it takes to be a high-level student-athlete. He's more than delivered since the creation of his account back in 2020, accruing 2.5 million followers on the app, and nearly 129 million likes over the course of his TikTok career.

MORE: How Jared McCain broke Duke's 3-point record with hot shooting against James Madison

The majority of McCain's content focuses on his life away from the floor. Much of it revolves around dancing, another form of kinesthetics which McCain takes seriously.

McCain is an avid entrepreneur. He's more than aware of the power of his brand, too; McCain is reportedly taking a TikTok class at Duke, one that should help him promote his likeness even further.

He's even brought his teammates into the action, employing them as cameramen, gaffers, choreographers and anything else he needs to get his message across.

How much money does Jared McCain make from TikTok?

Per On3's name, image and likeness (NIL) tracker, McCain is valued at $1.1 million, the 18th-best mark in college sports. He ranks behind only Bronny James ($4.9 million) among men's college basketball players in NIL value (Bryce James, a high school senior, is valued at $1.2 million).

It's unclear quite how much of McCain's net worth stems from his TikTok presence. However, it certainly seems feasible to believe that a great many of the brands who have flocked towards him like seagulls — including Crocs, Skims and Recover — did so on the basis of his ever-expanding presence on the social media platform.

David Suggs

David Suggs Photo

David Suggs is a content producer at The Sporting News. A long-suffering Everton, Wizards and Commanders fan, he has learned to get used to losing over the years. In his free time, he enjoys skateboarding (poorly), listening to the likes of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and D’Angelo, and penning short journal entries.