Cristiano Ronaldo is the first person to reach a whopping 400 million followers on Instagram.

In January 2020, he became the first person to cross the 200 million mark. And in a little over 2 years he’s gone and doubled that. He’s gained over 163 million followers in just 5, and he averages 10 million likes per post.

His tally is over 90 million followers clear of Kylie Jenner and Lionel Messi’s accounts. The pair are the second and third most-followed people on Instagram with 309 and 306 million followers respectively.

Top 10 followed people on Instagram

Ronaldo’s season might not be going how he would have dreamt it, but away from the football pitch, he is flourishing.

The star was third on the Forbes list of highest-paid athletes for 2021. And with his astronomical number of followers, he could very well be atop the list for 2022.

Ronaldo reportedly earns up to $1.7 million per post on his Instagram account.

The footballer recently celebrated his 37th birthday on the fifth of February. He marked the occasion on Instagram with a picture of himself and his partner, Georgina Rodriguez.

The post got over 15 million likes and had the caption “Life is a roller coaster. Hard work, high speed, urgent goals, demanding expectations… But in the end, it all comes down to family, love, honesty, friendship, values that make it all worth it. Thanks for all the messages! 37 and counting!”

True to the caption, Ronaldo’s Instagram posts mostly show him training, recovering, or having laid-back moments with his family.

The rest of his posts are of him modeling for his CR7 brand, sharing his Manchester United updates, or him attending different events.

Cristiano Ronaldo on Twitter

Ronaldo’s massive following on Instagram isn’t some isolated lucky stroke. He commands an equally impressive following on Twitter as well. He is by far the most followed sports personality on Twitter, with close to 50 million more followers than Neymar in second place.

Ronaldo is fifth on the list of the most followed Twitter personalities behind Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and Rihanna.

Of the Top 5, only he has less than 100 million followers. Ronaldo currently has 97.5 million followers. But, at just two and a half million followers shy of the 100 million mark, he will no doubt have reached it before the end of the year.

The Top 10 followed people on Twitter

Elon Musk, at 74 million followers, just misses out on the Top 10. Narendra Modi makes the Top 10 list because Donald Trump who would have been seventh on the list with 88 million followers cannot be included after his account was suspended by Twitter last year.

Only Ronaldo, Justin Bieber, and Ariano Grande feature on both Top 10 lists for Twitter and Instagram. And, Ronaldo’s combined tally of 497.5 million followers on both platforms means he has the largest social media following in the world.

Ronaldo’s content on Twitter is very similar to his Instagram content. But, his Twitter account shares Manchester United content more often.

The majority of his tweets are shots of him training or giving updates on the team’s upcoming games. Like on his Instagram, shots of his family show up on his feed occasionally, but the biggest difference is the lack of paid partnerships and CR7 merch. Twitter just doesn’t lend itself to that type of content as Instagram does.

Cristiano Ronaldo, back at Manchester United

Ronaldo returns to Old Trafford after 12 years got off to a great start with the star scoring 4 goals in just his first week back. But, his early-season heroics haven’t been able to inspire the side back to its former glory. After coming to the team’s rescue so many times, it seems there’s only so much the 37-year-old can do to help his side’s at this point in his career.

Ronaldo’s first season back at the theatre of dreams has been less glamourous than he would have hoped for.

Manchester United has struggled for form for a while now. The results have been so far below the side’s standards that management had to replace Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer just 13 games into the season.

Ralf Rangnick took over after an embarrassing 4-1 defeat at the hands of Watford. But, the writing had been on the wall for Solskjaer for some time after his side was thumped 5-0 at home by rivals Liverpool.

Manchester United is currently fourth on the log, 17 points behind leaders Manchester City. Their title challenge for the Premier League is all but over at this point, but Ronaldo could still win some silverware in his first season back. They are still in the hunt for the biggest trophy in European club football, the Champions League.

Manchester United face Atletico Madrid in the Round of 16 for a spot in the quarter-finals. Of all the four English sides still in the competition, only Manchester United hasn’t won a trophy in recent times.

Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t won a trophy since he left Juventus. He recently stated in an interview that he hadn’t returned to Old Trafford to see out the rest of his career, but rather, that he came to compete and fight for the big trophies.

However it goes, be it on Instagram or Twitter, we will all be watching as one of the greatest to ever do it tries to make it to the top one more time.