Every week, millions of people worldwide tune in to their televisions, load up their online players, and sometimes even travel many miles to a stadium. All of this effort to be entertained by professional sport, watching their favourite teams or athletes compete at the top of their game.
@devin._.booker @kdtreynets
For some, watching their heroes take to the field is not enough, and they are interested in what their idols are up to all the time. Social media is a great way to do this, and as such those sports stars with a top social following are among the most influential amongst their fans and admirers.
To discover the sports stars that enjoy the most influence, we have delved deep into the data for 200 of the world's biggest team sports stars, both in the states and across the Atlantic. Along with social media popularity, wages, merchandise interest, and Google searches for each player have been analysed to identify the most influential athletes.
@lebronjamesbible
9.82 influence score /10
Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is the most influential sports star in the world with a score of over 9.80. He achieved this score despite not being number one in any single factor but ranked in the top four for all but one. During his almost two-decade NBA career James has widely been considered one of the greatest players of all time, and this coupled with movie roles has made him incredibly successful and influential.
@curryclipz30
9.72 influence score /10
Steph Curry is another MVP in the world of basketball. The premium point guard has spent his entire career to date at the Golden State Warriors. Seen as the best shooter in the history of the game, Curry has won three NBA championships and been the league’s MVP twice. Fans clearly want to emulate Curry, as he has the most searches for replica jerseys (476,100 in the past year).
@neymarjrsiteoficial
9.46 influence score /10
Neymar is the highest-ranked sports star who doesn't play his trade on the basketball court. Samba soccer star Neymar scored 9.46/10. Neymar is the most expensive footballer of all time after he was signed for PSG for over $200 million, and he earned over $1.1 million per week. Neymar has the second-highest number of Twitter followers, and there were over 70 million Google searches of his name in the past year.
@thebiographypen
9.42 influence score /10
Kevin Durant was formerly a teammate of second-ranked Steph Curry at the Warriors, before his big-money transfer to the Brooklyn Nets where he now earns over $826,000 per week. Other than the number of Instagram followers, Durant ranks in the upper echelons for every single factor.
@cristiano
9.26 influence score /10
In many regards, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time and the Manchester United forward was still one of the highest-scoring players in the Premier League at the ripe old age of 37. He has scored over 800 competitive goals, won 32 major trophies, and won the Balon d'Or five times. In terms of influence, Ronaldo is a social media superstar, he has over 100 million Twitter followers (almost double second-ranked Neymar). He also has 444 million Instagram followers, which is more than 100 million more than anyone else. Ronaldo misses out on topping the rankings due to only having the 47th highest weekly wage and a small number of searches for replica shirts.
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Team |
Sport |
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Top Three Influential Sports Stars With The...
@sanju._leo
$1,285,038
earnings per week
@mcmanusdesign
$1,182,692
earnings per week
@neymar_jrr__
$1,138,038
earnings per week
Lionel Messi has just completed his first season in Paris as the highest-paid footballer in the world, during which he has scored 11 goals, which means he has earned over $6 million per goal. LA Rams Quarterback Matthew Stafford ranked second, and Messi’s teammate Neymar was third. The average wage for the top 200 was just under $530,000, and four athletes earn over $1 million per week (three of them at PSG).
Top Three Influential Sports Stars With The Most...
@cristiano
100.4 million
Twitter followers
@neymar_jrr__
56.8 million
Twitter followers
@lbjposters
51.4 million
Twitter followers
Cristiano Ronaldo is by far the most followed sports star on Twitter and the only one with a nine-figure follower count. Neymar and LeBron James both have more than 50 million followers, nobody else has over 20 million. The average number of Twitter followers is around 2.75 million.
Top Three Influential Sports Stars With The Most...
@cristiano
444 million
Instagram followers
@sanju._leo
329 million
Instagram followers
@neymar_jrr__
174 million
Instagram followers
The top 200 sports stars are better followed on Instagram than on Twitter, despite more of them having accounts on the latter. The average number of Instagram followers is over 11 million, and there are four men with over 100 million followers. Again Ronaldo has by far the most, followed by his great rival Messi, and Neymar is third again.
Top Three Influential Sports Stars With The Most...
@curryclipz30
476,100
jersey Google searches
@lbjposters
351,200
jersey Google searches
@devin._.booker
335,000
jersey Google searches
American sports stars dominate the interest in buying a replica jersey, as the top 28 ranking players mostly play in the NFL or NBA. Steph Curry had over 475,000 searches for his shirt in the last year, and LeBron James and Devin Booker were close in second and third place with over 300,000 searches.
Top Three Influential Sports Stars With The Most...
@cristiano
159.26
million Google searches
@neymar_jrr__
70.77
million Google searches
@lbjposters
67.84
million Google searches
When it comes to Google searches for the names of the sports stars in the past year it is Cristiano Ronaldo who once again rules the world of influence. There were almost 160 million global searches for the Portuguese forward in the past year. Neymar and LeBron James ranked second and third again. Another pair of legends, Tom Brady and Lionel Messi were the only others with more than 50 million searches.
The list of athletes was compiled by looking at the top 50 earning stars in Europe's top five football leagues, the NFL, the NBA, and the MLB.
The number of Twitter and Instagram followers was found from the verified accounts of each athlete.
We used Google Keyword Planner to find the global searches for player names and their jerseys between May 2021 and April 2022.
Each athlete was given a normalised score out of 10 for each factor before an average was taken across each of these scores.
