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Screengrab of the moment Ronaldo surpassed 1 billion followers on social media, from his live stream.
Credit: YouTube/ UR · Cristiano
Wherever Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be involved, tumbling of records also seems to be a foregone conclusion. On early Friday morning in India (around 3 am IST), Ronaldo surpassed 1 billion followers cumulatively across all social media platforms, a feat no other person had previously achieved. He ran a live counter on his recently created YouTube channel UR · Cristiano.
At the exact moment he reached a billion followers, according to his live stream, CR7 had 639,061,429 followers on Instagram, 170,529,133 on Facebook, 113,026,345 on X, 60,500,284 on YouTube, 9,372,710 on Kuaishou (a popular Chinese social media app for short-form videos) and 7,530,121 on Weibo (another Chinese social media platform).
This comes just 22 days after he began posting on YouTube, contributing to the drastic increase in his follower count. According to the Business Standard, Ronaldo's YouTube channel broke various records in the past month, including reaching a million subscribers within 90 minutes of his first video being posted on his channel and breaching 10 million subs within 10 hours.
He also reportedly reached 50 million subs within a week or so, surpassing many channels, including Taylor Swift, on the platform, Sports Illustrated reported.
Ronaldo's massive influence off the field is very well-known. Aside from social media, he also runs various business ventures including Ursu Water, Erakulis fitness app, and the CR7 brand, which makes fragrances, underwear, eyewear and footwear.
The Portuguese footballing icon recently scored his 900th goal for club and country, becoming the first-ever football player to do so, while helping Portugal to a 2-1 win over Croatia in their first Nations League match on September 6.
He also struck a late winner as his side came from a goal down to beat Scotland 2-1 to continue their strong start to the Nations League last Sunday.
The Champions League all-time top scorer is set to feature tonight (Friday, September 13) for his club Al-Nassr against Al-Ahli, led by the newly signed Ivan Toney.
(With Reuters Inputs)