Football star Cristiano Ronaldo’s YouTube channel quickly had more than 10 million subscribers in less than half a day after it was created.
Appearing at around 8pm on August 21 (Hanoi time), the UR · Cristiano channel was confirmed by YouTube as “genuine” with a grey check mark. After the first 90 minutes, the channel had more than one million subscribers. As of 7:45am on August 22, the channel reached 10 million subscribers – a milestone equivalent to a diamond button and a record on the platform.
UR Channel · Cristiano posts around 13 long-form videos and 7 short videos via the Shorts feature. Thanks to his large following, many of his videos now attract several million views.
Ronaldo posted a video showing off his YouTube golden Play button a few hours after creating his channel. Video: Cristiano/Instagram
Previously, the fastest YouTube channel to reach one million subscribers was Jennierubyjane Official by Jennie Kim, a member of the girl group Blackpink, in 7 hours. After more than three years, Jennie now has 10.26 million subscribers. The fastest channel to reach 10 million subscribers before Ronaldo was Hamster Kombat after 7 days.
Ronaldo confirmed to Variety that he has opened his first YouTube channel in years, saying he will not be using Google’s platform. He said the channel will be a place to discuss his “biggest passion” – football – as well as other topics including family, health, nutrition, education and business. Ronaldo will also chat with various guests on the channel in the future.
“I’m very excited to make this project a reality,” Ronaldo said. “I’ve always wanted to have a strong relationship with my fans on social media, and the YouTube channel helps me do that. I’m also looking forward to sharing stories with guests that will definitely surprise people.”
Cristiano Ronaldo greets Portuguese fans at the Gutersloh training ground in Germany on June 14. Photo: AP
Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the most followed person on social media with around 900 million followers across platforms, including 633 million on Instagram, 170 million on Facebook and 112 million on X. However, he only recently created a YouTube channel. Some previous rumors suggested that the Google platform banned him from creating a channel due to fear of “putting financial pressure on the platform”. However, neither YouTube nor Ronaldo has ever commented on the matter.
Ronaldo’s on-field rival Lionel Messi joined YouTube more than 10 years ago and now has 2.26 million subscribers and 207 videos.
