From Lionel Messi’s Argentina winning the World Cup to Cristiano Ronaldo’s shock transfer to Saudi-based Al Nassr, the world’s sports superstars frequently graced the headlines in 2022. But with all that coverage and notoriety, which athlete saw the largest increase in their fanbase?

Top 10 athletes who gained the most followers on Instagram in 2022

Rank	Name	Profession	2021 Instagram follower count	2022 Instagram follower count	Overall increase 2021-2022
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Footballer	382,556,277	518,542,472	135,986,195
2	Lionel Messi	Footballer	293,193,175	398,265,263	105,072,088
3	Neymar Jr	Footballer	144,579,559	181,093,569	36,514,010
4	LeBron James	Basketball player	107,243,345	136,717,170	29,473,825
5	Stephen Curry	Basketball player	32,215,946	47,013,352	14,797,406
6	Conor McGregor	UFC fighter	38,066,554	46,223,374	8,156,820
7	Canelo Álvarez	Boxer	6,394,415	14,088,943	7,694,528
8	Giannis Antetokounmpo	Basketball player	8,704,304	13,705,010	5,000,706
9	Lewis Hamilton	Formula One driver	26,495,368	30,315,409	3,820,041
10	Klay Thompson	Basketball player	10,773,721	13,820,965	3,047,244

Cristiano Ronaldo gained the most followers in 2022, having attracted 135,986,195 followers. He’s now the most followed person on Instagram, taking his total to over 518 million – 120 million more than rival, Lionel Messi!

This year, Messi added 105,072,088 followers to his Instagram account, 30 million less than Ronaldo. However, Lionel Messi’s “Champions of the World” Instagram post is the most liked EVER on the platform, with 74.6 million likes and counting – dethroning the World Record Egg’s post that accumulated over 59 million likes.

Messi’s PSG team mate, Neymar Jr comes in third. Spellbinding performances in Ligue 1 were tempered by an upset in the World Cup quarter-finals to Croatia. A talented but controversial figure, he still received an impressive 36,514,010 followers in 2022 (over 9x more than honorary Brazilian, Lewis Hamilton)

Basketball players LeBron James and Stephen Curry take fourth and fifth spots respectively. Whilst Uber-famous in the United States, basketball’s global brand isn’t as wide reaching as that of football, and so LeBron James taking on 29,473,825 followers in 2022 is hugely impressive. Curry took on 14,797,406 followers (11,750,162 more than his Golden State Warriors team mate, Klay Thompson, in 10th place)

Talented tennis player Naomi Osaka has had an incredible 4 years, winning multiple Grand Slams as well as the Australian Open in 2021. However, due to health issues, she did not participate in Wimbledon this year, leading to more followers leaving her than joining her. In 2022, Osaka lost 89,488 followers, the only sports star within our seed list to lose followers.

Read: Lionel Messi’s FIFA World Cup winning post becomes the Most Liked Photo on Instagram

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