The world’s richest man has one of the most followed accounts on the social media platform Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR): Elon Musk passed a milestone Monday for his Twitter account. Here’s a look at how his account has grown and who still has more followers than the Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO.
What Happened: Elon Musk passed the 100 million subscriber figure for followers on Twitter on Monday. At the time of writing, Musk has 100,015,841 million followers.
As of Monday, Musk is the sixth most-followed account on Twitter. Here are the people that rank ahead of him.
- Barack Obama: 132.1 million
- Justin Bieber: 114.1 million
- Katy Perry: 108.8 million
- Rihanna: 106.9 million
- Cristiano Ronaldo: 101.3 million
Twitter reported 229 million monetizable daily active users in the first quarter.
Musk didn’t pass anyone with the new milestone, but is edging closer to passing Ronaldo, who plays for Manchester United PLC (NYSE:MANU). Ronaldo is the most followed person meanwhile on Instagram, a social media platform owned by Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
Musk has more followers than these accounts in the top 20, including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Donald Trump (before his account was banned), Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates, who was recently called out by Musk for going short Tesla shares.
Related Link: The 7 Most Tweeted Topics By Elon Musk: How Do Tesla, SpaceX, Bitcoin And Dogecoin Rank
Growing the Account: The Twitter account for Musk lists a start date of June 2009. The first official tweet from Musk was believed to be on June 4, 2010.
“Please ignore prior tweets, as that was someone pretending to be me :) This is actually me,” Musk tweeted.
Over the years, Musk has been one of the most active CEOs on Twitter and has seen his following count surge. Among the most popular topics by Musk on Twitter are tweeting about the companies he leads with updates on Tesla and SpaceX, posting memes, and of course tweeting about Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) and other cryptocurrencies.
Here is a look at how Musk’s Twitter following has increased:
- January 2019: 23.9 million followers
- January 2020: 30.4 million followers
- January 2021: 41 million followers
- January 2022: 72.1 million followers
Musk is currently in the process of acquiring Twitter for $54.20 per share. One of the keys to getting a deal through the finish line is the possible resolution of Musk’s complaints about the number of fake accounts and followers. When taking that into account, Musk could still be shy of the 100 million follower milestone.
TWTR Price Action: Twitter shares were down 0.81% to $39.19 on Monday versus a 52-week range of $31.30 to $73.34.
