News — 31 Mar 2022
The Most Popular Content Influencers Around The World
Ever wondered who the world’s biggest celebrity influencers and homegrown content creators are in each country?
With many influencers surpassing celebrities when it comes to popularity, it’s no surprise that children are growing up with ‘influencer’ as their new career goal. A 2019 study even found that 34.2% of children want to pursue careers as
The Influencers: Mapped Report from the team at Affise looks at the most prolific content creators who have the biggest social fans in OECD countries, analysing which are the most popular on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
Follower counts, sectors, ages, content views, length of account activity and a comparison with home territory statistics have all been analysed for the report, which aims to shine a light on how popularity differs amongst influencers around the globe.
Portuguese Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo emerges as the world’s biggest influencer,with 355,120,000 combined followers across his accounts, and the largest following based in Italy.
The 36 year old, known for setting countless records, is highly active on his social channels posting football content, snippets of his lavish life and photographs of his girlfriend and four children.
US-based singer and actress Selena Gomez closely follows in second place as the world’s top influencer, with 331,700,000 combined followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The ex-Disney star’s feeds are full of selfies, ads for her own ‘Rare’ beauty brand, and countless pictures alongside her beloved pet dogs and close friends.
Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, famously the ex-boyfriend of Ms Gomez, emerges as the third biggest influencer in the world, with 287,200,000 combined followers. The former teen heartthrob and pop star’s social channels include behind the scenes footage from his tours, shots of the star looking loved-up with wife Hailey, and promotional content for his clothing brand ‘Drew House’.
Felix Kjellberg, also known as ‘Pewdiepie’ is the most successful self-made influencer, boasting 131,746,000 social followers. The YouTuber’s largest number of followers are from the USA, UK and Switzerland, and is well known for his ‘Let’s Play’ video content and comedic commentary.
Portuguese Virginia Fonseca takes second place as the next biggest self-made influencer. The internet star currently boasts 60,460,000 combined followers, predominantly using her platforms to share glimpses into her life, including her pregnancy journey with daughter Alice, tours of holiday destinations, and debates.
David Dobrik from the Slovak Republic is the third largest self-made influencer, with
56,900,000 combined followers. Famous for his YouTube channel, podcasts and co-founding the photography app Dispo, Dobrik is most famous for being the leader of the ‘Vlog Squad’ – a collective of famous influencers brought together by Dobrik to create group content for their channels.
Whilst there is no age limit attributed to sharing content on social platforms, research carried out for the report determined that the average age of currently successful global influencers is 27. Tama Tomo, a TikTok influencer from Spain, and Tata Estaniecki, an Instagram influencer from Portugal, are examples of successful influencers in this age group, alongside celebrity influencer Justin Bieber of Canada.
The youngest influencer featured in the report is Jacob Pasquill, a 16-year-old Instagram sensation with a substantial following in Iceland, despite being born in Bolton, UK. Conversely, the oldest influencer emerged as Nardwuar, a 53-year-old Canadian TikTok Influencer in the comedy, entertainment and music sector.
Reiley Peters leads the way when it comes to the influencers boasting more combined followers than their countries population. With 11,357,300 social fans, 21-year-old Reiley has a 3099.49% higher following than Iceland has residents!
Taking second place – and with 1525.39% more followers than there are Swiss residents – is PewDiePie, with 131,746,000 combined followers.
David Dobrik makes it to third place, with 1042.35% more followers than his country of birth, the Slovak Republic, with combined followers totalling 56,900,000.
Once again, Cristiano Ronaldo makes his way to the top of the table as the biggest Instagram influencer with 352,000,000 followers, with his largest following hailing from the football loving nation of Italy.
The star’s feed is home to an abundance of football specific content, particularly since rejoining Manchester United earlier this year.
The next biggest Instagram influencer is fellow footballer Lionel Messi, with 271,000,000 followers and a significant number being from Spain. Messi’s feed contains regular football-related content, as well as pictures of him with his family. An especially touching photograph on his grid features Messi and his wife in front of the Eiffel Tower to celebrate their new life in Paris, which generated 14,767,696 likes from fans.
The influencer with the third biggest presence on Instagram is American singer Selena Gomez, with 266,000,000 followers. The account boasts endless fashion shots and selfies, alongside snapshots of Selena’s life and friends including fellow singer and friend Taylor Swift.
With a singular post from an influencer having the ability to elevate a brand to new levels, reach new audiences, generate new followers and create unprecedented sales, it’s hardly surprising that sponsored ads often come at a hefty price.
Cristiano Ronaldo makes the most money per post with an Instagram post or story post from him costing an eye-watering £1,474,578. The football star has the largest following from those residing in Italy and just one post on Instagram can earn him £1,473,342 which is 119261.33% more than the Italian average monthly salary at £1,235.39.
Selena Gomez is the second highest paid influencer per post, with an Instagram upload earning the singer £1,142,899. The average national monthly salary of the USA being £2,605.20, meaning that one post from the singer can earn her £1,140,293.80, 43769.91% more than a US resident’s monthly wage.
Lionel Messi emerges as the third most expensive influencer for a paid post with an ad from the footballer costing £1,142,652. With his top Instagram followers residing in Spain, one post from Messi can make him an immense deal of £1,141,497.84, 98902.91% more than the Spanish monthly salary at £1,154.16.
Less well-known global influencers can also earn a considerable amount per Instagram post, particularly when compared to their countries average monthly salary. For example, Estonian Rally Driver Ott Tänak has an Instagram following of 317,000, and can earn up to £3,650 per Instagram post, more than three times the monthly salary of Estonia (£966.37).
Jacob Pasquill leads the way as the most engaging Instagram influencer, with an 18.2% engagement rate. The TikTok star is famously known for his comedic taste tests and reviews of food from the school cafeteria.
David Dobrik takes second place, with a 16.28% engagement rate on Instagram. The social media personality from the Slovak Republic is known in his home country for comedic vlogs that document all areas of life, as well as the fun he gets up to with the ‘Vlog Squad’.
In third place is Erica Laurane known to fans as ‘Erica’, who boasts a 12.45% engagement rate and a huge following in her home country of Latvia. The influencer is known for posting dramatic and artistic make-up looks, including whimsical fairy-inspired styles, pop art themed makeup and a variety of bold eye makeup patterns.
Loren Gray from the USA ranks as number one on the leaderboard for the most successful TikTok creators, with 54,100,000 followers. Known originally for her famous lip-syncing videos, the influencer has now gone on to forge her own successful music career.
Burak Özdemir, a chef from Turkey is the next biggest TikTok star analysed, with 48,400,000 followers. Famous for making videos creating his favourite dishes, the influencer also owns a chain of successful restaurants.
Emerging as the third most famous TikTok creator is BTS, a boy band from Korea with 42,200,000 followers. The seven-member globally famous pop group use the TikTok platform to share snippets of future songs, alongside behind the scenes videos of dance routines, and the fun antics they get up to on the road.
Self-made content creator PewDiePie ranks as the most famous YouTube star, with an impressive 110,000,000 subscribers. His ‘Let’s Play’ videos always cover on-trend topics, with popular recent videos featuring the star playing a spinoff game from famous Netflix series ‘Squid Game’.
Justin Bieber secures second place as a YouTube sensation, with 65,500,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, where devoted ‘Beliebers’ around the globe can devote hours to watching his back catalogue of music videos and keep up to date with latest releases.
The third biggest YouTube success is Badabun, a production company from Mexico with 44,900,000 subscribers on their YouTube channel. Uploading a variety of content from top ten lists to street surveys, with a comedic element woven in.
It’s only to be expected that celebrity influencers will have an eye-watering net worth, but it’s also important to note that even the smaller self-made influencers are making remarkable amounts from their online content and lucrative brand collaborations.
For example, German-based influencers Lisa and Lina have a combined net worth of £1,325,781. Comparing this to the annual salary of £26,041.92 in Germany the sister duo are making a huge success of their social careers.
Unsurprisingly, Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo takes the top spot for the influencer with the highest net worth, at approximately £368,337,500. In fact, back in 2020, the five-time FIFA player of the year became the first active athlete to surpass $1 billion in career earnings. With his lifetime deal with Nike, the sports star makes a substantial amount of money off the pitch, thanks to his CR7-branded clothing, accessories, hotel chain and gym collection.
With Ronaldo’s biggest social fans residing in Italy his net worth is a staggering 2484523% more when compared to the average Italian annual salary of £14,824.68 – resulting in Ronaldo being worth a whopping 24,846 Italian annual salaries.
David Beckham is one of the most famous soccer players of all time – as well as one of the richest – with an approximate net worth of £332,016,750. While he’s retired from playing the sport now, he is still making money on numerous sponsorships and modeling gigs.
With the football legend having the most social following from UK fans, comparing his net worth to the UK’s average annual salary (£23,583,48), he is worth a staggering 14,078.36 UK salaries.
PSG forward Lionel Messi’s ranks in third place with a net worth of £294,940,000. A contract leak in January 2021 showed Messi was making much more at FC Barcelona than previously thought; with the football star earning up to $165 million annually in salary and incentives, which was an unmatched figure in team sports.
The star has also found wealth from his own clothing line and retail outlet, the Messi Store, in 2019 in Barcelona. He also has a lifelong deal with Adidas.
Messi is the top social media influencer in Spain with the majority of his followers residing from the country, and his net worth totals approximately 21,295.43 yearly salaries in Spain (£13,849,92).
The Influencers: Mapped Report discovers the homegrown content makers that are the most popular and profitable across different countries of the world, as well as the sectors that they specialise in.
Taking a seed list of the oecd countries, the report reveals which influencers are the most prolific in countries around the world, by using the following metrics:
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Written by
Affise Academy
Affise is a partner marketing platform for brands, advertisers and agencies to scale via all possible performance marketing channels. Synergy of technology and our long standing experience lets you expand your partnerships, automate every step of the campaign lifecycle and make data-driven decisions.
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