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Celebrities and superstar athletes make some serious coin from posting sponsored content on Instagram. We all know this, but it’s always interesting when we hear about the actual numbers behind said sponsored posts.
It should come as no surprise, but LeBron James is the NBA’s highest-paid social media influencer. According to data from OnlineGambling.ca and a report from Business Insider, James earns an average of $300,850 per sponsored Instagram post. For comparison, Steph Curry reportedly makes just over $150,000 per sponsored post.
That’s a massive amount of money, but it actually doesn’t compare to the type of money each time he suits up for the Lakers. James’ salary is $37.4 million in the NBA this year, which if you break that down with the 82 game regular season, he pulls in $451,000 per game.
You have to really feel for the guy. He has to hit that post button twice on Instagram to make a cool $600,000 to catch up to his NBA money.
Many people, and probably most North Americans, would argue that James is the most popular athlete on the planet, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi battle for that title around the globe and make an unbelievable amount of money through Instagram.
Ronaldo reportedly makes a little over $33 million per year playing for Juventus while on a weekly wage of approximately $637,000. That’s not a bad chunk of change, but that doesn’t compare to what he pulls in from his Instagram
According to a Buzz Bingo study, Ronaldo brings in $47.8 million per year from paid Instagram posts. The report claims he makes $975,000 per paid post. Correct, almost $1 million per sponsored post. Ronaldo is the most followed person on Instagram with 185 million followers; a slightly larger number compared to James’ 59.7 million followers.
Messi makes the second-highest amount of money from Instagram at the tiny amount of just $23.3 million per year at $648,000 per paid post.
Social media, man.