Cristiano Ronaldo becomes first to reach 500 million followers on Instagram

The football player has broken a social-media record (Patricia de Melo Moreira)
The football player has broken a social-media record (Patricia de Melo Moreira)

Cristiano Ronaldo, football player for Manchester United, has stayed at the top of his game in sport over the past few years, often touted as one of the most talented players of his generation. Now, he’s also conquered the world of social media.

Ronaldo is the first to climb past 500 million followers on Instagram, making him one of the most digitally influential people on the planet.

The footballer shares a variety of polished photos and more natural ones with family, as well as obligatory action shots from games.

The sport seems to be taking the social-media platform by storm, with the second-most-followed account being Lionel Messi, with 376 million followers.

This collab was likely a key driver for Ronaldo climbing above 500 million followers, with the photograph, taken by Annie Leibovitz, becoming the second-most-liked post on Instagram.

The only post that beats it is, bizarrely, a photo of an egg that set the world record with 55.9 million likes (and still counting).

On November 19, Ronaldo gained more than one million followers in just 24 hours, after he posted a snap featuring Messi as well. This suggests that the internet-breaking image brought the extra attention to Ronaldo’s Instagram channel.

It comes as no surprise then that one of Ronaldo’s recent posts, featuring both the sports stars playing chess, reached more than 35 million likes, far higher than Ronaldo’s rough average of 10 million likes per post.

 (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

In third place is perhaps the more predictable Kylie Jenner, who has been in the ‘top five most followed’ for the past few years. She is closely followed by Selena Gomez and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Ronaldo has turned his Instagram platform into a profitable business, averaging a fee of $2 million per sponsored post. What’s more, he also has a link to his collection of NFTs via Binance, where he is surely also making a tidy profit. Added to his salary, Ronaldo’s earnings are set to skyrocket further.