Virat Kohli has reached his century (100 millions) in Instagram following. (FILE) Indian cricket team skipper Virat Kohli has hit another century, though this time on social media. On Monday, Kohli became the first Asian celebrity to reach the 100 million followers mark on Instagram.
The stylish right-handed batsman is on top from Asia and the next best on the list is Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra with 60.8 million followers, followed by 58 million followers of Shraddha Kapoor.
While overall, Portuguese footballer Christiano Ronaldo tops the chart with 266 million followers, followed by singer Ariana Grande with 224 million followers and retired WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson is third on the list with 220 million followers. Lionel Messi and Neymar are the other two from sports who rank among the top five in Instagram followers list.
Sharing the landmark, the International Cricket Council (ICC) took to Twitter,” Virat Kohli – the first cricket star to hit 100 million followers on Instagram.”
Virat Kohli – the first cricket star to hit 100 million followers on Instagram 🎉 pic.twitter.com/HI1hTSbo8M
— ICC (@ICC) March 1, 2021
Instagram is not the only platform Kohli is followed most, he has 40.8 million followers on Twitter and over 36 million likes on Facebook. Interestingly, Kohli travelled the way from 50 million followers to 100 million just in one year. He had become the first Indian to get 50 million followers on Instagram in February 2020.
Currently leading the Indian cricket team with 2-1 in the ongoing Test series against England at Ahmedabad, Kohli was recently ranked as the most valuable celebrity for the fourth consecutive year in 2020 with a brand value of USD 237.7 million, and the second and third slots had gone to Hindi film actors Akshay Kumar and Ranveer Singh, according to an industry ranking.
Of the top ten most-valued celebs, only Kohli is outside of the filmdom and of the nine film stars only two are females in the 2020 ranking. While Kohli’s brand remained the same, the top 20 celebs lost 5 per cent of their combined value to USD 1 billion in 2020, Duff & Phelps, which specialises in brand valuation, said in a statement in February this year.