Cristiano Ronaldo gained over 20 million subscribers on his YouTube channel within just the first 24 hours of its launch on Wednesday morning. By Thursday afternoon, his subscriber count had already exceeded 24 million.
This move highlights the growing trend of professional athletes leveraging their fame on platforms like YouTube, which boasts around 2.7 billion users globally. Ronaldo has already uploaded 12 videos, amassing over 82 million views in total, along with seven YouTube Shorts, each attracting over a million views.
At 39, Ronaldo is making a significant push into content creation, especially as he may have played his final international game for Portugal during last month’s Euro 2024 tournament. His contract with the Saudi Pro League team Al Nassr, valued at $200 million, is set to end in 2025.
Ronaldo’s rapid success on YouTube, although expected given his huge following of over 700 million on Instagram and X, highlights a new avenue for top athletes to explore outside of their sports.
In a similar vein, Bryson DeChambeau, who won the U.S. Open in June, has built a YouTube following of 1.39 million subscribers. He shares a range of golf-related content with his audience when he’s not playing in LIV Golf events or major tournaments.
Brothers Travis and Jason Kelce have amassed 2.42 million subscribers on their YouTube channel for their hit podcast, *New Heights*. The channel features full podcast episodes, clips, and Shorts.
While other active athletes like Heat forward Jimmy Butler, baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer, and Colorado football standout Travis Hunter have also seen some success on YouTube, their reach hasn’t matched that of Ronaldo, DeChambeau, or the Kelce brothers.
Will Indian sportsmen like Virat Kohli take the same route? As of now, Kohli’s YouTube channel has a small following since he doesn’t upload any content other than the highlights of his matches. Only time will tell if Indian sportsmen see content creation on YouTube as a lucrative option in the future.
