Virat Kohli Becomes First Asian Celebrity To Have 150 Million Instagram Followers

Indian captain Virat Kohli is one of the most famous cricketers in the world and that is evident from his fan following not only in real life but also on social media. And this fact was further strengthened after Kohli became the first Asian celebrity to reach the 150-million followers mark on Instagram.

Kohli, who has legions of fan clubs all over the country, has gained fame that rivals of former Indian cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. Virat Kohli has 47 million followers on his official Facebook page and another 43.4 million fanatics follow him on Twitter.

Virat Kohli Becomes Only The Fourth Sportsperson To Have 150+ Million Followers On Instagram

While on the field, Virat Kohli might be struggling to reach new landmarks as his wait for that elusive 71^st international century has stretched to almost two years now, off the field, the cricketer is breaking new ceilings for celebrities.

On Friday, Kohli became the first cricketer, first Indian as well as the first Asian to cross the 150 million followers landmark on Instagram. In the overall list, Kohli is the fourth sporting celebrity to reach the 150 million mark on the photo-blogging portal.

Kohli is just behind Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr. (160 mn), Argentinian Lionel Messi (260 mn), and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (337 mn) in numbers. However, Kohli’s record numbers are groundbreaking given the discrepancy in the numbers of followers and fans football has over the world and cricket has worldwide.

Virat Kohli, The Highest Paid Indian Celebrity Fetching The Most Per Sponsored Post On Instagram

According to Hopper HQ, Kohli is also the highest-paid celebrity in India when it comes to making money through Instagram. The superstar cricketer reportedly charges INR 5 crore per sponsored post on the platform. With Kohli now reaching the 150 million mark, the price per post is also likely to increase.

When compared to Virat, Ronaldo charges USD 1,604,000 (INR 11.72 crore), Messi makes USD 1,169,000 (INR 8.54 crore) per sponsored post on Instagram and Neymar earns USD 824,000 (INR 6 crore) per sponsored post on the photo-sharing website.

Kohli is unarguably the highest-earning cricketer in the world (considering all sources). Though his earnings through the central BCCI contract are not the best in the world, he makes a ton of money from the IPL and brand endorsement deals.

Virat makes Rs. 17 crore from Indian Premier League (IindiPL) franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rs. 7.5 crore from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He also makes quite a lot from the various products and services he endorses with Colgate, Google, Hero, Puma, Vicks, and MRF tyres being the major ones.