Cristiano Ronaldo has most-followed Facebook page with 168m followers, Messi 9th

The Portugal captain has the most followers of any personality or brand, bar the official page of Facebook itself, which has 188 million followers.

Meanwhile, mobile phone brand Samsung is the third most followed page with 161 million followers, while comic actor Mr Bean is fourth with 140 followers.

Award-winning singer Shakira finds herself as the sixth most-followed page on Facebook, Real Madrid in seventh and the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in eighth.

Argentina captain and seven-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi is down in ninth position, alongside Hollywood actor Will Smith, with 116 million followers apiece.

The Global Digital Report for 2024 was compiled by We Are Social and details the use of social media, internet, mobile and e-commerce trends globally.

According to the report, global social media users across the globe have passed the five billion mark, with annual user growth still comfortably above five per cent.

Also, while almost two-thirds of the world’s total population is now online, 2.7 billion people remain “unconnected” at the start of 2024, and adoption rates across Sub-Saharan Africa remain well below 50 per cent.

For television, however, the latest data suggests that global viewing times have been declining steadily over recent months.

Meanwhile, Instagram has also overtaken WhatsApp to become the world’s “favourite” social platform.