Elon Musk is on track to become Twitter's most-followed account. From Barack Obama to Katy Perry, here's how his rivals rank.
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- Elon Musk is expected to overtake Barack Obama as Twitter's top influencer in January, per BBC News.
- Musk has gained nearly 270,000 Twitter followers a day in the past year, per the report.
- Here are the top 10 most-followed accounts on Twitter.
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Musk, who acquired Twitter in late October, has the second most-followed account on the platform with 119.5 million followers.
Social Blade, an analytics website, told BBC News it predicts that Musk would have the most Twitter followers by January 17.
Musk has gained an average of 268,303 Twitter followers a day over the past year, Social Blade told the BBC.
When Twitter fired contractors on November 12, Musk lost almost 200,000 followers in a day, according to Social Blade.
Since he took over Twitter, Musk has posted 84% more often and hit his tweet record on November 22 with 75 tweets, Social Blade told the BBC.
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Obama has 133.2 million followers, making him the biggest influencer on Twitter.
However, Social Blade told the BBC this could soon change as it predicts Musk's follower count will overtake the former president in January.
Obama's Twitter account appeared to have been hacked in July 2020 as part of a cryptocurrency scam which also hit Musk, President Joe Biden, and Bill Gates.
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The singer and musician has 113.6 million Twitter followers.
In April Musk criticized Bieber's Twitter account as well as other celebrities and high-profile figures for rarely tweeting and posting "very little content."
"Justin Bieber only posted once this entire year," Musk tweeted.
At that time, Musk was ranked the eight most-followed Twitter account with more than 81 million followers.
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Perry frequently tweets written posts, videos, and reshares content on her Twitter account.
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Most of Rihanna's content includes pictures and videos of her Savage X Fenty lingerie brand – and her music.
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Musk tweeted in August that he was buying Manchester United, the football team that Ronaldo has just left, but then said it was a joke.
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When Musk criticized the top 10 Twitter accounts for rarely posting, he called out Swift in a separate tweet.
"For example, Taylor Swift hasn't posted anything in 3 months," Musk said.
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Trump was locked out of his Twitter account following his tweets during the US Capitol riots in January 2021.
Musk restored Trump's account on November 19 after he tweeted a poll with a simple yes or no response to the statement "reinstate Trump."
Shortly after, Reuters reported that Trump said he saw no reason to rejoin Twitter. He still is yet to tweet for the first time after his account was reinstated. Instead of Twitter, he posts content on Truth Social, a social media platform he founded.
Despite not tweeting since January 2021, the former president still ranks in the top 10 most-followed Twitter accounts.
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Lady Gaga also follows a lot of Twitter accounts: about 116,700 at the time of writing.
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Modi is one of the three politicians who sit in the 10 most-followed accounts on Twitter.