New Delhi | Jagran Sports Desk: Indian skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Asian celebrity to cross 75 million followers mark on Instagram. The cricketer is also the fourth most followed athlete in the world on the platform, behind football legends Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr.
Indian cricketers enjoy a massive following on the social media platform due to the immense popularity of the sport across the country. Kohli has not stepped foot on the cricket pitch since March due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and yet has amassed over five million followers in the past 30 days, according to Social Blade.
He is far ahead of the second and third most followed Asian celebrities — Priyanka Chopra, who has 56 million followers and Deepika Padukone, who has 52 million followers. With his 75,719,390 followers at the time of filing this story, Kohli is the 26th most-followed person on Instagram. The RCB captain has an engagement rate of 4.11 per cent and his posts garner an average of over 3 million likes. Kohli enjoys an immense following of 43,283,195 on Facebook, while on Twitter, he is followed by 37.4M people at the time of filing this story.
Kohli is regarded as one of the best batsman in the world. With a total earning of USD 26 million, he is the only Indian in the Forbes' list of world's highest-paid athletes. According to the data collected by 'Attain' the cricketer earned a whooping 379,294 pounds through his sponsored posts on Instagram between March 12 and May 14, this year.
Kohli, who captains the Royal Challengers Banglaore side, is gearing up for the thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League beginning September 19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).