Who Has the Most Followers on X?
Key Takeaways
- Elon Musk, who owns X, is the platform’s most-followed person, with 242 million followers.
- Musk has more followers than Barack Obama and Cristiano Ronaldo, the next two largest accounts, combined.
- Politicians and musicians dominate the ranking, alongside several of the world’s biggest athletes.
There are many ways to grow a social media following. When looking to outperform world leaders, however, it helps to own the platform itself.
This visualization ranks the 15 most-followed people on X (formerly Twitter) as of September 2026. Accounts belonging to brands or companies, including X itself, have been excluded.
The ranking includes political leaders, musicians, athletes, and business figures from around the world.
How Musk Became X’s Most-Followed Person
In April 2022, Elon Musk launched an unsolicited offer to acquire Twitter. By the end of October, he had acquired the social media platform for a reported $44 billion.
Within five months of completing the deal, Musk surpassed former U.S. President Barack Obama as the most-followed person on the platform.
The table below ranks the world’s 15 most-followed people on X as of September 2026.
| Rank | Account | Followers (Millions) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |    Elon Musk |
242 | Businessman |
| 2 | Barack Obama |
119 | Politician |
| 3 |  Cristiano Ronaldo |
114 | Athlete |
| 4 | Donald Trump |
112 | Politician |
| 5 |  Narendra Modi |
107 | Politician |
| 6 |  Rihanna |
99 | Musician |
| 7 | Justin Bieber |
92 | Musician |
| 8 | Katy Perry |
90 | Musician |
| 9 | Taylor Swift |
84 | Musician |
| 10 | Lady Gaga |
75 | Musician |
| 11 | Virat Kohli |
73 | Athlete |
| 12 | Kim Kardashian |
71 | Media Personality |
| 13 |  Neymar |
66 | Athlete |
| 14 | Bill Gates |
65 | Businessman |
| 15 | Selena Gomez |
63 | Actress & Musician |
Musk changed the company’s name from Twitter to X in 2023, around the same time he surpassed Obama in followers. The new branding also aligned the platform more closely with other Musk ventures such as SpaceX.
Musk reduced content moderation on the platform and reinstated some formerly banned accounts while also directing the amplification of his own tweets in the algorithm. X’s workforce shrank by roughly 80% in the first few months after his purchase through mass layoffs and voluntary resignations.
Presidents and the Political Class
One of the accounts Musk reinstated shortly after his purchase was that of Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the United States.
Trump had been suspended from Twitter in January 2021 following the actions of his supporters in the final days of his first presidency. The sitting U.S. president has 112 million followers on X, though he is far more active on his own competing social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama (119 million), has the second-most followers on X. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (107 million) ranks fifth.
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo (114 million) is the only person among the top five who is not associated with politics. Ronaldo is also the world’s most-followed person on X rival Instagram.
The Decade of Perry
Outside the top five, no figure reaches 100 million followers. Rihanna comes closest with 99 million. Nearly a sixth of X’s roughly 650 million active users follow the Barbadian singer.
Rihanna is followed by a string of fellow musicians, including Justin Bieber (92 million), Katy Perry (90 million), Taylor Swift (84 million), and Lady Gaga (75 million).
Katy Perry holds another notable distinction. The American singer was the world’s most-followed X account for the longest period on record, holding the title for 2,110 days from late 2013 until Obama surpassed her in 2019.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
To see how social media platforms intersect with political leanings, check out How Politically Divided Are Social Media Networks? on Voronoi.
