The "Pretty Little Liars" have inspired some pretty passionate social media followers, with the show dominating Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in 2016.

That's according to data collected by research firm ListenFirst Media, which analyzed television programming from January 1, 2016 through December 15, 2016 and determined that "PLL" was the number one overall show in terms of engagement on the aforementioned social media sites. (Twitter and Snapchat were not included in this specific study, though Tumblr and Google+ were.) The series inspired 256 million engagements from fans, a whopping 25 percent increase since 2015; its biggest audience remains on Instagram, which is responsible for 82 percent of that hefty total.

"'PLL' has consistently been at the top," said Meghan Cahill, ListenFirst's head of TV strategy, in a statement. "The storyline, especially going into their final season, has helped amplify their social engagement despite the algorithmic challenges from each of the platforms."

According to Jason Klein, co-founder and co-CEO of ListenFirst Media, a large part of the huge recent boost in online fan engagement is thanks to television outlets spending more time and money promoting their shows on social media. That, in turn, has led to higher numbers in total social engagements, as well as total fan growth (a.k.a. the number of new followers a show attracted this year).

The full rankings for ListenFirst's top social shows of 2016 are as follows:

Returning Series, Social Engagement Score

  1. "Pretty Little Liars" (Freeform): 256.75 million
  2. "The Walking Dead" (AMC): 144.86 million
  3. "Teen Wolf" (MTV): 70.55 million
  4. "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" (NBC): 65.78 million
  5. "America's Funniest Home Videos" (ABC): 59.08 million
  6. "Empire" (Fox): 44.72 million
  7. "The Daily Show" (Comedy Central): 44.07 million
  8. "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC): 39.68 million
  9. "Game of Thrones" (HBO): 39.66 million
  10. "The Voice" (NBC): 34.31 million

Freshman Series, Social Engagement Score

  1. "Shadowhunters" (Freeform): 60.78 million
  2. "Stranger Things" (Netflix): 12.99 million
  3. "Lucifer" (Fox): 10.19 million
  4. "This is Us" (NBC): 9.20 million
  5. "Haters Back Off" (Netflix): 6.75 million
  6. "Fuller House" (Netflix): 6.63 million
  7. "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" (TBS): 3.71 million
  8. "The Shannara Chronicles" (MTV): 3.11 million
  9. "Queen Sugar" (OWN): 2.41 million
  10. "Atlanta" (FX): 2.17 million

Returning Series, Fan Growth

  1. "The Late Late Show with James Corden" (CBS): 8.86 million
  2. "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" (NBC): 8.49 million
  3. "WWE Raw" (USA Network): 6.96 million
  4. "WWE Smackdown" (USA Network): 6.36 million
  5. "Game of Thrones" (HBO): 5.43 million
  6. "The Walking Dead" (AMC): 4.96 million
  7. "The Voice" (NBC): 4.02 million
  8. "America's Got Talent" (NBC): 3.54 million
  9. "Saturday Night Live" (NBC): 3.41 million
  10. "America's Funniest Home Videos" (ABC): 3.31 million

Freshman Series, Fan Growth

  1. "Stranger Things" (Netflix): 4.35 million
  2. "This Is Us" (NBC): 1.56 million
  3. "Fuller House" (Netflix): 1.12 million
  4. "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" (TBS): 1.10 million
  5. "Shadowhunters" (Freeform): 1.09 million
  6. "Legends of Tomorrow" (The CW): 994,218
  7. "Lucifer" (Fox): 805,995
  8. "Westworld" (HBO): 651,527
  9. "Luke Cage" (Netflix): 536,672
  10. "Atlanta" (FX): 470,902

[via: Variety]