PA/Cristiano Ronaldo/InstagramFootballer Cristiano Ronaldo has topped the Instagram earners list, raking in a whopping $47.8 million this year.
The Portuguese forward already pulls in a $36.6 million-per-year salary at Juventus, signing a four-year contract with the Italian club last year as well as captaining his national football team.
However, he has a lucrative social media presence on the side: as one of the most popular players on the planet, it’s unsurprising he has more than 194 million followers on Instagram.
This year’s ‘Insta Wealth’ list was compiled by Buzz Bingo, detailing the top 20 celebrities’ earnings from the social platform – including how much on average they earned per ad post, as well as how many they uploaded.
Ronaldo was pulling in around $975,000 for each of the 49 ad posts he made this year (from when he promoted the likes of Nike football boots and his own fragrance, CR7 Play it Cool).
Out of the top 20 earners, half of them are sports and fitness personalities. At number two is FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, managing to earn $23.3 million this year with around $648,000-per-post from 23 ad posts.
The Argentinian Ballon D’or winner has more than 139 million followers online and has collaborated with a number of brands, from Adidas and jewellery outlet Jacob & Co. to American crisp company Lays.
The Jenner and Kardashian family have took three spots in the top 10: Kendall Jenner is the highest paid woman, while Kylie is sitting at number eight.
Kendall, 24, sits at number three, earning $15.9 million from posting to her 120 million followers. Earning around $611,000-per-ad post, she’s promoted underwear brands such as Calvin Klein and skincare Proactiv across 26 sponsored pictures.
Her younger sister, Kylie, is doing very well for herself (obviously). The 22-year-old has a huge following on Instagram, with more than 155 million followers.
From selfies to promo posts for her Kylie Cosmetics brand, the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star raked in $3.9 million this year (averaging around $1.27 million for each of her three ad posts).
Khloe Kardashian is at number 10, with a low number of ad posts but an eye-watering income. After posting two sponsored pictures, the 35-year-old socialite earned $1.2 million.
While Khloe’s Instagram (with more than 102 million followers) is mostly filled with snaps of her and her one-year-old daughter True, she also uses the account to promote her sister Kim’s fragrance, KKW, which also features one scent named after her.
Never has my humble Instagram felt so inadequate.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.