Barack Obama has picked up millions of new followers and is closing in on the social media platform’s world Top 3.
By Monday morning, @BarackObama had 83.1 million followers, good for No. 4 worldwide — behind Katy Perry at 95.5 million, Justin Bieber at 91.4 million and Taylor Swift at 83.2 million.
Obama, with his handle since 2007, had been hovering at about 80 million for some time. But the 44th president really took off in the past few days as he handed over the White House to Donald Trump.
Obama had 80.5 million Twitter followers just one week ago and took a big step from Thursday, his last full day in office, to inauguration Friday — from 80.7 million to 81.7 million, according to analytic group TwitterCounter.
Omer Ginor, managing director of TwitterCounter, predicted that Obama will pass Swift by the end of Monday.
He declined to speculate on Obama’s ceiling, or if the former president could someday challenge Perry and Bieber for Twitter supremacy.
“What I can say is that gaining 2.5 million followers in three days (Thursday to now) is not something we see very often on Twitter,” Ginor said.
President Trump’s @realDonaldTrump had 21.6 million followers on Monday morning, good for No. 59 in the world — just behind No. 58 Kourtney Kardashian at 21.7 million and a little ahead of No. 60 NASA at 21.2 million.
Trump’s Twitter has also been on the rise, gaining steadily from 17.8 million followers on Dec. 23, according to TwitterCounter data.