This information was confirmed by Cristiano Ronaldo himself on his social network account X. He shared: “We have made history with 1 billion followers! This is not just a number, but a testament to our passion and love for football.

From the streets of Madeira to the big stage, I have always played for my family and for you. Thank you for accompanying and believing in me. This journey is ours, we will overcome all limits. The best is still ahead and we will continue to write history!”. Ronaldo recently launched his YouTube channel and on the first day the channel attracted 15 million subscribers. In just the first week, this number skyrocketed to 50 million and now his channel has surpassed 60 million subscribers.

On other social media platforms, Ronaldo has 170.5 million followers on Facebook, 113 million on X (formerly Twitter), and around 10 million each on China’s Weibo and Kuaishou.

However, Instagram is his biggest “playground”, with 639 million followers, accounting for around 8% of the global population.

Lionel Messi is the player with the closest number of followers to the Portuguese star, with only around 500 million followers.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s fortune is close to the $2 billion mark

The Al Nassr striker is currently playing his third season in the Saudi Pro League, where he has received around $215 million in salary in 2023. In addition, he earns an additional $60 million from advertising contracts. Ronaldo’s total earnings in 2023 will reach $275 million, more than double that of any other athlete except golfer Jon Rahm ($203 million).

Cristiano Ronaldo also has lifetime earnings of about $1.92 billion as of March 2024 and is expected to surpass $2 billion by the end of the year. If that happens, he will become the third athlete to reach this milestone, after Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.