Through a social media post earlier today (August 12), India cricketer Virat Kohli quashed reports doing the rounds about how much he earns from his social media accounts.

Kohli’s clarification came on the back of a 2023 Instagram Rich List by Hopper HQ, a solution media marketing solutions platform, claiming that Kohli charges close to 1,384,000 US Dollars per post on Instagram, which roughly translates to around 11.5 crores in Indian rupees. While Kohli did not explicitly mention the name of the report, it is being widely understood that his tweet was regarding the same.

The Instagram Rich List is supposed to reveal the richest celebrities on Instagram and how much they make through the social media platform. This year’s list included Kohli in the 14th spot, the highest for any Indian in the list and the third-highest among athletes around the world.

However, Kohli took to X (formerly Twitter) to make a clarification.

While I am grateful and indebted to all that I’ve received in life, the news that has been making rounds about my social media earnings is not true. 🙏

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) August 12, 2023

Kohli currently has 256 million followers on Instagram and another 56 million on X (Twitter). He has previously been named on this list as well. In 2021, Kohli was listed in the 23rd spot and was the highest-ranking Indian on the list.

The 2023 Instagram Rich List was headed by football star Cristiano Ronaldo who has nearly 296 million followers on Instagram, while actors Dwayne Johnson and Ariana Grande were second and third respectively.

The report might have been incorrect, as claimed by Kohli, but he is definitely one of the most popular celebrities on social media. Among Indians, no one has more followers on Instagram than Kohli’s 256 million. In fact, the second on the list in terms of number of followers is Priyanka Chopra, whose follower count stands at nearly 89 million, less than half of that of Kohli’s.

Among athletes, Kohli is third in terms of number of Instagram followers. Only footballers Ronaldo (599 million) and Lionel Messi (482 million) have more followers than Kohli on the social media platform.

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