Virat Kohli vs Cristiano Ronaldo: A social media number crunch between the most popular athletes in the world

Cristiano Ronaldo and Virat Kohli are two of the most popular athletes of their respective sports. While football is followed in over 150 countries and is a world-wide phenomenon, cricket is a sport that is followed with great passion and fervor in around 10 countries.

Ronaldo is a behemoth as far as social media is concerned. In fact, such is his following that no celebrity, across any field can even come close to his massive presence on social media. The Portugal football icon went past another significant milestone on social media, as he breached the magic mark of 500 million on all social media platforms, and became the first and only person to do so.

On the other hand, Kohli is the most followed Indian on Instagram. The Indian skipper is considered one of the biggest celebrities in the Indian sub-continent, and has already etched his name as one of the greatest batsmen that the game of cricket has ever seen. In this article, let us do a brief comparison of the most popular football star, and pit him against the most popular cricket star.

Comparison of Cristiano Ronaldo and Virat Kohli across social media platforms

Instagram

On Instagram, Ronaldo is the undisputed king. He is the most followed celebrity in the world, and has a following of 261 Million (at the time of writing). He has posted over 3000(3007) times on Instagram. As far as Kohli is concerned, he is nearing a century on Instagram. The Indian legend has 96.3 Million followers (at the time of writing), and it is only a matter of time before he crosses the 100 Million mark. Right now, no celebrity (definitely not Kohli) looks like toppling Ronaldo from the pole position.

Facebook

Even on Facebook, Ronaldo is the most followed celebrity. He has a whopping follower count of 148 Million, and leads his nearest competitor (as far as people accounts are concerned) by nearly 40 Million. Shakira is second in the list with a following of close to 109 Million.

As far as Kohli is concerned, he has a following of just over 43(43.3) Million. He is the sixth most followed Indian celebrity on Facebook. Looking at the way things stand at the moment, it would be a tough task for Kohli to even breach the 100 Million mark on Facebook.

Twitter

Now, let us come to the other social media giant Twitter, and see how Ronaldo and Kohli stack up against each other here. On Twitter, Ronaldo is the fifth most followed celebrity, and is inching towards the 100 Million mark (91 Million). In fact, such is Ronaldo’s domination on Twitter as far as sports personalities are concerned, that he leads the second most followed sportsperson by almost 40 Million (Neymar has a following of 51.8 Million).

On the other hand, Kohli does not even have half the number of followers as Ronaldo on Twitter. He has a following of 40.5 Million followers on Twitter, and is the sixth most followed celebrity in India. On Twitter too, Ronaldo is way ahead of Kohli.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that Ronaldo is in a league of his own, as far as social media is concerned. He is the most followed celebrity in the whole world, and his follower count is testimony to the same. Kohli is undoubtedly the most followed Indian on social media, and has a follower count of around 180 Million on all three social media platforms combined. But, even if we take into account Ronaldo’s Instagram followers alone, he would still lead Kohli by over 80 Million.

Total social media followers (Instagram+ Facebook +Twitter) of Ronaldo and Kohli

Cristiano Ronaldo-500.04 Million

Virat Kohli- 180.2 Million