Virat Kohli joins the list of most influential athletes on Instagram

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Founded in 2010, Instagram has gained staggering momentum in terms of the number of active monthly users. In 2019, 815 million users accessed the photo-sharing platform on a monthly basis, which increased to around 1100 million in 2022.

The footfall is ever-increasing, and certainly, the sponsors and advertisers have used this platform for their benefit for the last few years. In particular, the athletes have gained massive popularity in terms of their followers and brand value as well.

Hype auditor, a platform that analyses social media influencers for different statistics has released the list of Top Sports with a Ball Influencers on the Instagram list. Here, Sports with a ball means, the sports associated with the ball. In this ranking, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has taken the top rank once again. While to follow him, are footballer, Lionel Messi, cricketer Virat Kohli, and 4^th and 5^th on this list are Neymar Jr and Kylian Mbappe, respectively.

The Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has 423 M followers on Instagram and is the most popular among brands to advertise their products. While his arch-rival, Argentina footballer, Leo Messi has a 317 M fan base, with an engagement rate of 1.39%.

The only Indian in the Top 5 of this coveted ranking is Indian cricketer Virat Kohli with 189 M followers on this platform with 1.78% engagement rate. With the rise of this platform and Kohli’s performances on the international circuit, his followers are certainly on a rising trajectory.

The 4^th on this list is Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr, who is quite famous for his celebrations as well. He has 172.4 M followers with an engagement rate of 1.6%. While French footballer Kylian Mbappe with 69.2 M followers and 5.44 % engagement rate is 5^th on this list.