Virat Kohli marks new milestone on Instagram; clocks 10 Mn followers in a month

Indian skipper Virat Kohli has created a milestone yet again by gaining 10 million followers in a month on the popular photo-blogging portal Instagram. He became the first Asian celebrity to reach the 150 million followers mark earlier in September and currently, the RCB star accounts for 160 million followers on his official Instagram handle. He reportedly charges INR 5 crores per Instagram post and became the first cricketer, first Indian, first Asian, and fourth sportsperson to touch the coveted 150 million mark. 

Known for scoring tons of runs for the Indian cricket team as well as his IPL franchise RCB, Kohli has tasted success both on and off the field. He continues to break records both as a player and also as a celebrity on social media. As per Hopper HQ, Kohli is the highest-ranked Indian celebrity on Instagram and charges over INR 5 crores for every promotional post he puts out on Instagram. 

Neymar Jr is the closest to Kohli with 162 million Instagram followers

Other than Kohli, Portuguese football legend Cristiano Ronaldo has a total of 355 million Instagram followers, while Lionel Messi has over 274 million followers. Brazilian footballer Neymar Jr. has over 162 million followers on the photo-blogging portal and is the closest to Kohli. Ronaldo and Messi charge INR 11.72 crore and INR 8.54 crore respectively for every promotional post. Whereas, Neymar charges INR 6 crore on putting out a sponsored post.

Kohli is arguably considered as the top-earning cricketer in the world, amid his central contract with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) not earning him the best amount in the world. However, Kohli earns INR 17 crore from his Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise RCB and INR 7.5 crore from the BCCI contract. Kohli also endorses some of the top brands in India and is often seen featuring in advertisements, every now and then.

While leading RCB in the 2021 season of IPL, Kohli reached the IPL 2021 playoffs, however lost the eliminator to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on October 11. The 2021 season of IPL was his last assignment as the skipper of RCB. He will be next seen leading India in the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021, which starts on October 17. Kohli also declared that he would hang his boots as the T20I captain of India, post the conclusion of the 2021 T20 World Cup.

(Instagram Image: @iplt20/BCCI)