Over the years, Instagram has become the top social media platform for athletes, allowing them to build personal brands, engage with fans, and attract hefty sponsorships. And while both male and female sports stars have turned Instagram into a multi-million-dollar revenue stream, there are considerable differences in counting their audience and followers.
According to data presented by Betideas.com, the top ten most popular male athletes on Instagram count a whopping 2.24 billion followers, or 16 times more than female sports stars.
Cristiano Ronaldo Alone Counts 5x more Instagram Followers than Top 10 Female Athletes Combined
While many sports icons have mastered the art of monetizing their social media reach, there is a huge gap between male and female athletes, reflecting the broader trend seen in professional sports. Men’s sports have dominated viewership, sponsorship, and media coverage for years, with high-profile leagues like the Premier League, NBA, and NFL attracting massive audiences and generating huge revenue. At the same time, female athletes often struggle for equal visibility on and off the field despite their talents and achievements.
According to Betideas’ analysis of Statista and Instagram data, the ten most popular male athletes on the platform count 2.24 billion followers. To put that into perspective, that is more than a quarter of the world’s population, estimated at 8.1 billion in 2025, or roughly the populations of China, India, and the United States combined. The ten most-followed female sports stars on Instagram count 16 times less followers, or around 135 million. Shockingly, Cristiano Ronaldo alone, counts 651 million followers, or five times more than the top ten female athletes combined.
His long-term rival, Lionel Messi, ranked second with over half a billion Instagram followers. Virat Kohli, Neymar, and LeBron James round out the top five names, with 271 million, 229 million, and 159 million followers, respectively. Kylian Mbappé, ranked sixth on the list of most-followed male athletes on Instagram, is the only other male athlete with over 100 million followers. Following him are David Beckham with 87 million followers, Ronaldinho with 77 million, Karim Benzema with 75 million, and Zlatan Ibrahimović with 64 million.
Female sports stars fall significantly behind these figures. Serena Williams, Key Alves, and Ronda Rousey, the top three most-followed female sports icons on Instagram, each have around 17 million followers. That’s 50 million fewer than Zlatan Ibrahimović, the tenth most-followed male sports star, and roughly 30 times fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
Additionally, the gap in follower counts among the top female athletes is far less dramatic. While the difference between Cristiano Ronaldo’s and Zlatan Ibrahimović’s follower counts is nearly 590 million, Serena Williams has only about twice as many followers as Alex Morgan and Rayssa Leal, who each have around 9 million.
The Follower Gap Comes with a Massive Earnings Divide
This large follower gap also translates into a significant difference in Instagram earnings between top male and female athletes. While Serena Williams remains one of the highest-earning female sports stars on the platform, her per-post earnings are still considerably lower than those of her male counterparts.
As of 2025, Williams earns between $37,000 and $50,000 per sponsored Instagram post. In contrast, Cristiano Ronaldo, the most influential male athlete on the platform, earns over $3.2 million per post, or 64 times more than the tennis superstar. Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. follow closely, earning approximately $2.5 million and $950,000 per post, respectively.