Ronaldo’s YouTube Launch Fuels Athlete Content Creator Trend

Cristiano Ronaldo added more than 20 million subscribers to his YouTube channel in the first 24 hours after launching Wednesday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, the subscriber count had surpassed 24 million.

The global soccer superstar’s YouTube arrival furthers the trend of professional athletes monetizing their popularity on the streaming platform that has roughly 2.7 billion users worldwide. Ronaldo has already posted 12 videos, generating more than 82 million total views, as well as seven YouTube Shorts that each have been watched more than a million times, and counting.

Ronaldo, 39, is diving head-first into the content game as he may have played his final international match for Portugal at last month’s Euro 2024 tournament. His $200 million contract with Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr is due to expire in 2025.

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While Ronaldo’s immediate success on YouTube isn’t surprising—he already had more than 700 million followers across Instagram and X—it does showcase a new off-field path for the most well-known players across sports.

Bryson DeChambeau, winner of golf’s U.S. Open in June, has 1.39 million YouTube subscribers, for whom he posts a variety of golf-related videos when he’s not competing on LIV Golf or at major championships.

Brothers Travis and Jason Kelce have 2.42 million subscribers to the YouTube channel for their popular podcast, New Heights, which posts full episodes, as well as podcast clips and Shorts.

Other active professional athletes like Heat forward Jimmy Butler, baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer, and Colorado football two-way star Travis Hunter have previously found some success on YouTube, but not to the degree of Ronaldo, DeChambeau, or the Kelces.