Ronaldo first athlete to get 200 mn social media followers

Real Madrid star striker Cristiano Ronaldo has made social media history by becoming the first athlete to reach 200 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Ronaldo has 109.7 million followers on Facebook, 49.6 million on Instagram and 40.7 million on Twitter after a "meteoric rise" in popularity, according to social media tracking database Hookit.com.

The Portuguese footballer got more followers than prominent past and present NBA stars Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry's combined 187 million.

The 31-year-old may have lost out to Barcelona star Lionel Messi in the Ballon d'Or race in January but the Portuguese easily trumps his long time rival's 120.8 million followers on social media, though the Argentine does not have a Twitter account.

Hookit also gave details that Ronaldo saw nearly one billion interactions on social media last year and added 41.8 million new followers, the majority of whom came from Instagram.