Ronaldo, who was named the world’s highest-paid athlete by Forbes in July for the first time since 2017 after moving to Saudi Arabia, has now topped the 2023 Instagram Rich List, a global indicator of online popularity.
The list was developed by Hopper HQ, an Instagram scheduling tool, and is based on internal and publicly available data on how much each user can charge for an Instagram and YouTube post.
According to Hopper HQ, the Portugal forward earns a whopping $3.23 million each Instagram post as he approaches 600 million followers on the social media network.
Ronaldo’s closest competition on the list is Lionel Messi, with the Argentina World Cup winner commanding about $2.6 million for each position.
This puts the two football titans ahead of not only other athletes, but even celebrities like singer and actress Selena Gomez, reality star and make-up mogul Kylie Jenner, and actor Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Only two other athletes made the Top 20: Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and Brazilian footballer Neymar.
Neymar earns nearly twice as much per post as his Paris Saint-Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe.
“It still astounds me that the platform’s annual revenue grows year after year,” Mike Bandar, co-founder of Hopper HQ, remarked.
“However, what fascinates me the most are the consistent players at the top.” It’s clear that traditional superstars’ gloss and glamour still have sway over the new ‘influencer’ status.
“Ronaldo and Messi not only dominate the pitch, but also the digital sphere, as it’s clear they personify the power of personal branding and the influence it holds over us ‘ordinary’ people.”
TikTok star Khaby Lame, the highest earning Instagram influencer, ranks 40th on the list. Ronaldo gets over ten times as much than Lame for his Instagram postings.
(With inputs from Reuters)