The Biggest Sports Influencers In The World (Social Media)

The Biggest Sports Influencers In The World (Social Media)

In this modern age, social media plays an integral role in expanding any sports personality brand. Athletes are just as popular as mainstream actors or musicians, garnering millions of online followers, and these numbers only increase every day.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is up there with the likes of the Kardashians as one of the world’s most followed personalities on social media. He is, as of today, the most followed sportsperson in the world, with over 138m followers on his Instagram, 73m on twitter and 122m likes on Facebook. He generates millions of dollars of revenue from ad-based and sponsored posts, solely due to the amount of influence he has – for instance, within 24 hours of his transfer being announced, more than 500,000 Juventus jerseys were sold.

Neymar Jr

The Brazilian forward follows close behind Ronaldo, with 101m on Instagram, 60m on Facebook, and 40m on Twitter. He rakes in just about £460,000 from one Instagram picture. POWA, sponsorship evaluation engine, claims, with Nike, Beats and Wish as some of his sponsors, that he will soon dethrone Ronaldo as the most influential athlete on social media.

LeBron James

The four-time NBA Most Valuable Player’s social media accounts are reported to generate a total of around £60 million in endorsements. As one of the most recognizable names in basketball, and arguably, in sports, LeBron has a massive online following comprised of fans from all around the world. He has also partnered with several big brands like Samsung and Nike. With 41m Twitter followers, 40m Instagram followers, 23m Facebook likes, he is a top sports influencer.

Lionel Messi

Despite not having a twitter account, Lionel Messi still makes the list. With over 97 million Instagram followers and 90m Facebook likes, he falls just behind Neymar on the two platforms and makes up to £400,000 per Instagram post.

Gareth Bale

Another football player to add to the list, Madrid’s winger has a total of 73,768,771 followers (would have changed by the time you read this) across his social media accounts, with 44% of that figure being Instagram followers. He ranks 63rd on a list of the most followed individuals on the social media platform.