Heavy-ion collisions offer a unique possibility to explore in the laboratory the hot and dense deconfined phase of strongly-interacting matter: the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). In this context, measurements performed in smaller systems, such as proton–proton and proton–nucleus collisions, provide the reference data for the interpretation of the heavy-ion collision results. However, measurements obtained in high-multiplicity pp{} and pPb{} collisions at the LHC have exhibited features that are similar to what was observed in PbPb{} collisions, where they are usually interpreted as signs of collective behaviour. These observations warrant a comprehensive study of the production of identified particles which are important probes to investigate the dynamics of the small systems. Thanks to the excellent particle identification performance of the ALICE detector the measurement of identified particles is possible over a wide range of transverse momentum ($pt$). In order to discuss the similarities between the different collision systems, the results obtained in pp{}, pPb{} and PbPb{} collisions will be reviewed.