Top 9 badminton influencers on Instagram based on the world ranking
Based on the world ranking in November 2022, Badminton Speak set out to explore how well these top men’s singles players do on Instagram. We found a big difference between the top male badminton influencers and the bottom.
Some players have amassed huge followings, but are struggling to keep their audiences engaged.
A select few have fewer followers but are world-class at engaging their fans. Influencing fans and followers should be a priority, rather than being the most popular Instagram account. After all, having a huge audience means nothing, if the audience isn’t listening, right?
Instagram influencer countdown sorted by best engagement
In the following, we have sorted the list from best to worst based on engagement, not followers or likes. Engagement is defined as the percentage of followers who have actively liked, commented, or shared. The engagement metric is based on the last 18 public posts – it is not a reflection of lifetime engagement. Contact us if you want to know how we did this
#1 – best engagement Lakshya Sen, India
- World-class engagement rate of 21%
- 210.000 followers
- Content mostly about tournaments and a bit bout the lifestyle and personal life of Lakshya Sen.
- See his Instagram here
#2 – best engagement Rasmus Gemke, Denmark
- Massive engagement rate of 16,75%
- Only 14.000 followers on Instagram
- Clearly, his content is well-received by his fans
- Rasmus has great potential in terms of reach on Instagram.
#3 – best engagement Kento Momota, Japan
- Impressive engagement rate of 13,80%
- 645.000 followers on Instagram
- Mostly in Japanese, which would explain why Kento hasn’t hit 1 million + followers.
- Sadly Kento Momota does not post very often on Instagram.
#4 – best engagement Lee Cheuk Yiu, Hong Kong
- Impressive engagement rate of 13,50%
- Only 43.000 followers on Instagram
- He posts frequently
- Meet his girlfriend here on Instagram
#5 – best engagement Chou Tien Chen, Chinese Taipei
- Impressive engagement rate of 11,26%
- 170.000 followers on Instagram
- This post about refereeing is spot on – in Chinese and English – go check it out
- See his Instagram here
#6 – best engagement Anders Antonsen, Denmark
- Impressive engagement rate of 10,76%
- 273.000 followers on Instagram
- Content is mostly badminton-focused, but his content is popular amongst his many fans
- See his Instagram profile here
#7 – best engagement Loh Kean Yew, Singapore
- Impressive engagement rate of 10,57%
- 351.000 followers on Instagram
- Posts about training, tournaments, lifestyle
- See this post with his parents
#8 – best engagement Jonatan Christie, Indonesia
- Engagement rate of 8,54%
- A mind-boggling 2,2 million people follow Leonardus Jonatan Christie on Instagram
- The biggest active audience of all male singles players
- Lots of interesting posts on Jonatan’s Instagram. And lot’s of profiles pretending to be the real official deal.
#9 – best engagement Lee Zii Jia, Malaysia
- Engagement rate of 7,64%
- Impressive 970.000 followers on Instagram
- Recently a lot of “Lee Zia Jia as a male model” pictures
- He posts infrequently on Instagram, but his posts seem quite engaging
What about the Instagram badminton influencers?
See the rest of the top 15 in this table. ER is engagement rate. WR is world ranking as of 1st November 2022 according to BWF. These 15 badminton influencers all do their part in making badminton popular.
| WR | Player | Followers | ER | Active fans last 18 posts | Country |
| 1 | Viktor Axelsen | 772,000 | 6.46% | 49,871 | Denmark |
| 2 | Lee Zii Jia | 970,000 | 7.64% | 74,108 | Malaysia |
| 3 | Anders Antonsen | 273,000 | 10.76% | 29,375 | Denmark |
| 4 | Chou Tien Chen | 168,000 | 11.26% | 18,917 | Taiwan |
| 5 | Loh Kean Yew | 349,000 | 10.57% | 36,889 | Singapore |
| 6 | Anthony Ginting | 1,600,000 | 6.92% | 110,720 | Indonesia |
| 7 | Jonathan Christie | 2,200,000 | 8.54% | 187,880 | Indonesia |
| 8 | Lakshya Sen | 210,000 | 28.04% | 58,884 | India |
| 9 | Kento Momota | 646,000 | 13.80% | 89,148 | Japan |
| 10 | Kunlavut Vitidsarn | 00 | Thailand | ||
| 11 | Srikanth Kidambi | 171,000 | 2.65% | 4,532 | India |
| 12 | Prannoy H.S. | 73,500 | 3.98% | 2,925 | India |
| 13 | Rasmus Gemke | 14,000 | 16.75% | 2,345 | Denmark |
| 14 | Lee Cheuk Yiu | 42,900 | 13.47% | 5,779 | Hong Kong |
| 15 | Ng Ka Long | 256,000 | 5.66% | 14,490 | Hong Kong |
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Heh heh.
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu has 3.5M Instagram followers.
Saina Nehwal has 8.3M Twitter followers
We’ll cover the women single player’s social media presence soon. FYI Saina has a little over 3.000 followers on Twitter. But thanks for your comment, much appreciated.