Pitcher (and batter) Shohei Ohtani captured baseball fans’ imaginations when he defeated Los Angeles Angels teammate Mike Trout in the ninth inning of the World Baseball Classic final. The Japanese prowess at the World Classic has also brought him a ton of subscribers Instagram social networkwho was the first baseball player to break the 4 million mark.
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Ohtani claimed 4.8 million followers on Thursday, more than double the 1.7 million who followed his account before the tournament began, The Sports Daily reported.
Ironically, Trout is the second most followed baseball player on the social platform with 2 million followers.
But despite that 141% increase, Ohtani’s prominence on Instagram remains light years away from that of soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, who, with 565 million subscribers, has the most “followed” profile in the world, all sectors combined.
In comparison, in the National Hockey League, Alex Ovechkin wins the award with… 1.6 million subscribers.