Top 10 Most Followed Celebrities On Instagram 2018: Who Defeated Selena Gomez?

Selena Gomez, who was the most followed celebrity on Instagram in 2017, has now been dethroned by Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with more than 148 million followers. The "Same Old Love" singer had over 120 million followers on Instagram last year, and the number has gone up to 144 million now, bringing her to the second spot.

As the year ends, here is a list of the top 10 most followed celebrities on Instagram.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo: In the second position last year, the athlete moved to the number spot 148 million followers. As of Monday, Ronaldo has shared 2,420 posts, with the most recent one showing off his "important victory, historic milestone" — Juventus' 5,000 goal in Serie A - that made the team win against Torino on Sunday. Earlier this year, Forbes released a list of highest-paid soccer players and Ronaldo came in No. 2 as the sport’s top earner (and No. 3 among the world’s top athletes) with $108 million. To follow Ronaldo click here.

2. Selena Gomez: In September, the singer announced she was taking a social media break on Instagram. While many reports claim that the break may have led to her slip in number of followers, this cannot be confirmed. As of publishing this story, Gomez had little over 144 million followers.

3. Ariana Grande: With 139 million followers, the "Side to Side" singer is ranked third in the list of most followed Instagram users. On Saturday, she posted the video of her new song "Imagine," which was viewed by more than 4 million users.

4. Dwayne Johnson: Popularly known as "The Rock," the star has 125 million followers. In his post late Sunday, he shared miniature characters from the "Jumanji" movie, writing: "Why does MAUI make HOBBS look tiny like @kevinhart4real? We need a JUMANJI set! And it’s a good hair day for both these mofos."

5. Kim Kardashian – The reality TV star had 122 million followers as of early Monday. Last year, Kardashian lost around 100,000 of her 100 million followers on Instagram after she posted airbrushed photos of her butt. Even last year, Kardashian was the fifth most popular celebrity on Instagram.

6. Kylie Jenner – The Kardashian-Jenner sister has 121.7 million followers. According to the 2018 Instagram Rich List compiled by Hopper HQ, an automated Instagram scheduler, Jenner makes an estimated $1 million per sponsored post on her Instagram, which makes her the highest paid celebrity influencer on the social media platform. Jenner is followed by Gomez, who gets $800,000 per sponsored post, and Ronaldo, who earns $750,000.

7. Beyoncé – With a very little margin, the "Lemonade" singer got the seventh spot after being defeated by Kylie Jenner. The singer has 121.6 million followers as of publishing the story. Last year, Queen Bey broke the record for the most-liked photo with 8 million-plus likes in roughly seven hours since the time she posted in February 2017 that she was pregnant with twins.

8. Taylor Swift – With 114 million followers, the "Blank Space" singer is in the eighth position for this year's most followed Instagram users. Her most recent post started with thanking her fans for the wishes on her birthday, which she celebrated on Dec. 13. She also shared the trailer for the Reputation Stadium Tour.

"The entire concert film will premiere on @netflix at 12:01AM PST December 31. You made this tour so insanely fun for all of us on stage, and I’m really excited that we will have this memento of the memories we all made together this year," she added.

9. Neymar Jr – Another soccer player in the list is this Brazilian star with 107 million followers on Instagram. Neymar Jr has been pretty much active on the photo-sharing site with his most recent post coming late Saturday.

10. Justin Bieber – Rounding out the top 10 is "Baby" singer with 103 million followers. Last month, the singer confirmed his marriage to Hailey Baldwin. He shared the news on Instagram with a heartfelt post about thanksgiving, writing: "Happy late thanksgiving to everyone. First thanksgiving as a married man, first time hosting thanksgiving. First time both sides of the family has come together. Relationships are hard and love isn’t always easy but thank you Jesus for showing me how! Every day is a learning process, trying to be more like him, patient, kind, selfless, boy I got a long way! But gods grace is sufficient!"