5k to 5.5m: Viral Kiwi enjoys astronomic rise as Ronaldo tops charts

New Zealand international Tim Payne has enjoyed an astronomical rise in Instagram followers in the lead-up to the FIFA World Cup 2026™.

The 32-year-old Wellington Phoenix veteran was the subject of a viral social media stunt, initially unbeknownst to him, which saw his followers rocket from around 5,000 to more than 5.5 million.

Payne’s IG following now has him sitting 77th of the 1,244 players in the 48 World Cup squads.

Data from Better Collective tells us that there are a bunch of players with below 2,000 followers including Scotland's Grant Hanley (1,180), Bosnia and Herzegovina's Mladen Jurkas (1,341), Czechia's Jaroslav Zeleny (1,701) and Morocco's Zakaria El Ouahdi (1,903).

Curaçao's Trevor Doornbusch has also enjoyed a nice rise over the last 24 hours, going from 1,606 to more than 27,000 followers.

Will anyone become the new Payne during the tournament?

Those numbers pale in comparison when it comes to the world’s most followed footballers.

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo has an astonishing 665.6 million followers ahead of Argentina’s superstar Lionel Messi (506.5 million), Brazil’s Neymar (34.3 million), France’s Kylian Mbappé (130.5 million) and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah (65.4 million).

See the 20 most followed players on Instagram right now:

1 - Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - 665.6 million
2 - Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 506.5 million
3 - Neymar (Brazil) - 234.3 million
4 - Kylian Mbappé (France) - 130.5 million
5 - Mohamed Salah (Egypt) - 65.4 million
6 - Vinicius Junior (Brazil) - 59.9 million
7 - James Rodríguez (Colombia) - 50.1 million
8 - Lamine Yamal (Spain) - 43.3 million
9 - Jude Bellingham (England) - 41.3 million
10 - Erling Haaland (Norway) - 40.6 million
11 - Luka Modrić (Croatia) - 38.6 million
12 - Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium) - 26.3 million
13 - Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) - 23.5 million
14 - Pedri (Spain) - 22.5 million
15 - Marcus Rashford (England) - 22.3 million
16 - Casemiro (Brazil) - 22.3 million
17 - Federico Valverde (Uruguay) - 21.6 million
18 - Ousmane Dembélé (France) - 21.2 million
19 - Gavi (Spain) - 19.5 million
20 - Julián Álvarez (Argentina) - 19.3 million

And the 9 least followed:

1 - Grant Hanley (Scotland) - 1,180
2 - Mladen Jurkas (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - 1,430
3 - Jaroslav Zeleny (Czechia) - 1,701
4 - Ivan Sunjic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - 2,060
5 - Zakaria El Ouahdi (Morocco) - 2,250
6 - Alexandr Sojka (Czechia) - 2,270
7 - Ayoub Al Oui (Qatar) - 2,440
8 - Tyrick Bodak (Curaçao) - 3,200
9 - Mohamed Al Mannai (Qatar) - 3,200

Due to Ronaldo’s 665m, Portugal sits on top of all the nations ahead of Argentina (thanks Messi) and Brazil (cheers Neymar).

1 - Portugal - 743.2 million
2 - Argentina - 647.5 million
3 - Brazil - 424.9 million
4 - France - 229.1 million
5 - Spain - 133.4 million
6 - England - 129.0 million
7 - Egypt - 110.9 million
8 - Colombia - 90.3 million
9 - Morocco - 72.8 million
10 - Germany - 72.3 million