International soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is the most followed person on instagram, so it should come as no surprise that he makes a killing from his sponsored posts. Truth be told, Cristiano makes more money just posting on IG than he does playing for Juventus, a gig that pays him $34 million annually.
According to a Hopper HQ study published on Buzz Bingo, Ronaldo earned $47.8 million for his 49 sponsored posts on the 'gram last year, which is far more than any other user included in their analysis. For those scoring at home, that works out to $975,000 per each advertised post that he puts in front of his 187 million followers.
“Ronaldo is the most followed human on Instagram so companies are paying almost $1 million for posts to access his insane reach,” Hopper HQ’s Nicola Cronin told Business Insider.
“Due to his status as a celebrity and football star, his earnings from Instagram break away from typical influencer partnerships, as many of his promotional posts will be part of wider sponsorship deals, such as Nike,” Cronin said. “You only need to go on his Instagram to see how many paid partnerships he does outside of the sports market.”
The $47.8M Cristiano earned last year is more than the sponsored dollars brought in by fellow soccer icons Lionel Messi ($23.3M), David Beckham ($10.7M) and Neymar Jr. ($7.2M), as well as Selena Gomez ($8M), Kendall ($15.9M) and Kylie Jenner ($3.8M).
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