Pledge Sports

The Most Popular Female Athletes In Sport

At PledgeSports, we help athletes and teams from every sport known to man woman or child raise money and attract sponsorship through our sports crowdfunding platform.  We also have a very keen interest in sports trivia, let’s see what makes the most popular female athletes in sport so loved around the world.

Without further ado, here is a list of the 10 most popular female athletes as of February 2020

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Ronda Rousey – UFC Fighter

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Instagram followers – 12.9 M

Facebook followers – 12 M

Twitter followers – 3.6 M

Rousey started off her sports career in Judo and became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo by winning a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.  The UFC star had enormous success in the UFC before a shock defeat at the hands of Holly Holm in 2015 and subsequently losing her Bantamweight belt.  After some time out from the UFC and public life, she return to fighting in December 2016 with a second consecutive loss, this time at the hands on Amanda Nunes, she would retire from MMA soon after

Rousey is currently signed to WWE as a wrestler. Her longstanding nickname, “Rowdy”, was inherited from late professional wrestler Roddy Piper.  She is the only woman to win a championship in both the UFC and WWE

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Maria Sharapova – Tennis Player

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Instagram followers – 3.9 M

Facebook followers – 15 M

Twitter followers – 8.6 M

Maria Sharapova was a tennis superstar, she has been ranked no.1 in singles on five separate occasions. She is one of ten women to hold the career Grand Slam. Not to mention she is also an Olympic medalist, having earned silver for Russia in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Even a failed drugs test and a subsequent 15-month ban can’t damage the support Sharapova has from sports fans around the world. The five-time major winner has since retired from tennis.

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Danica Patrick – Auto Racing Driver

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Instagram followers – 758 K

Facebook followers – 1.5 M

Twitter followers – 1.8 M

Danica Sue Patrick is an American auto racing driver, model, and advertising spokeswoman. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing—her win in the 2008 Indy Japan 300 is the only women’s victory in an IndyCar Series race and her third place in the 2009 Indianapolis 500 the highest finish there ever by a woman.

Serena Williams – Tennis Player

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Instagram followers – 12.2 M

Facebook followers – 5.9 M

Twitter followers – 10.9 M

Serena Williams is near the top of the pile when it comes to the most popular female athletes, Serena holds the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined amongst active players. Her record of 39 Grand Slam titles puts her third on the all-time list and second in the Open Era: 23 in singles, 14 in women’s doubles, and 2 in mixed doubles, make her the greatest female tennis player of all time.

The 38 year old won her first singles title as a mother at the 2020 ASB Classic, becoming the first woman in the professional era with at least one title in four decades: the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and 2020s.

 

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Jessica Ennis-Hill – Track & Field Athlete

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Instagram followers – 418 K

Facebook followers – 1.3 m

Twitter followers – 1.5 M

Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill is now a retired track and field athlete. She competed in the heptathlon and she is the  2012 Olmpic champion and also a three-time world champion and a european champion. In 2016, In February, Ennis-Hill was voted Sportswoman of the Year at the British Ethnic Diversity Sports Awards and shortly afterwards announced her retirement.

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Hope Solo – Soccer Player

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Instagram followers – 1 m

Facebook followers – 2 M

Twitter followers – 1.1 M

Hope Solo is an American soccer goalkeeper and two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup Champion. She remains one of the most successful and the most popular female athletes in the world today. She was the goalkeeper for the United States soccer team from 2000 to 2016 and currently holds the U.S. record for the most career clean sheets.

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Lindsey Vonn – Alpine Ski Racer

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Instagram followers – 2 m 

Facebook followers – 1.34 M

Twitter followers – 1 M

Lindsey Vonn is an American World Cup Alpine ski racer and she has won a remarkable four World Cup overall championships and also she won the gold medal in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the first ever in the event for an American woman.

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Nikki Bella

The top-followed pro wrestler on our list of most followed female athletes on Instagram, Nikki Bella was sidelined for the first half of 2016 after extensive surgery on a neck injury. After 10 months out of the ring, the WWE star made a surprise return at WWE’s SummerSlam and she hasn’t looked back since.

Nikki also has a media career as well has her own active wear and beauty brand

Instagram followers – 9 m

Facebook followers – 8.7 M

Twitter followers – 1.7 m

Venus Williams – Tennis Player

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Instagram followers – 1.2 m

Facebook followers – 2.35 M

Twitter followers – 1.7 M

Venus William makes our list as one of the most popular female athletes in the world. Venus has been at the top of her game for over 2 decades now and she showcases at 37 years old you can still compete with the very best in the tennis game. She is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats along with her younger sister Serena. She has been hugely succesful in tennis and has an impressive 7 Grand Slam titles to her name with 5 of them coming at Wimbledon.

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Alex Morgan – Soccer Player

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Instagram followers – 9.3 M

Facebook followers – 3.5 M

Twitter followers – 4 M

In addition to leading America in the Rio Olympics and finishing the season as a suitable nominee for the 2016 Female Soccer Player of the year, Alex joined her teammates this year to file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions, accusing the US Soccer Federation of wage discrimination on behalf of the whole US Women’s National Team.

In 2015, Morgan was ranked by Time as the top-paid American women’s soccer player largely due to her numerous endorsement deals.  She also became the first women’s soccer player to appear on the cover of FIFA video games in 2015. As you can see from her social media following, Alex is a huge figure in female sport and is regarded as one of the most popular female athletes of this decade.

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Laila Ali – Former Professional Boxer

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Instagram followers – 954 K

Facebook followers – 3.9 M

Twitter followers – 138 K

Laila Ali is now a retired american professional boxer who competed from 1999 to 2007. She is the daughter of the legendary boxing champion Mohammed Ali. During her career, from which she retired undefeated, she held the WBC, WIBA, IWBF and IBA female Super middleweight titles, and the IWBF light heavyweight title.

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