Popular streamer believes LeBron James will surpass Cristiano Ronaldo and land 50 million YouTube subscribers in under 3 days

Popular streamer Adin Ross believes LeBron James can surpass Cristiano Ronaldo's record-breaking number of subscriptions on YouTube. Ronaldo recently launched his own channel, which amassed around 47 million subscribers in about three days.

During one of his recent streams, Ross claimed that if the LA Lakers superstar makes a YouTube channel, it will get 50 million subscribers in three days. He called it "facts" and the "truth."

"I wanna say something become somebody said something. 'Do you think if LeBron a YouTube, he'll get 50 million?' Guys, if LeBron James made a YouTube (channel) tonight, he'll be at 50 million in three days. Facts. I'm sorry but it's the truth. It's the truth," Ross said.

While Adin Ross' claim appears valid, given the popularity of LeBron James and basketball in general, Cristiano Ronaldo is quite possibly atop of athletes in social media. Ronaldo is the most-followed athlete on Instagram and second overall, just behind Instagram itself with 636 million followers.

James is the most-followed basketball star with 160 million, but he's behind other footballers, such as Lionel Messi and Neymar. He's also behind cricket superstar Virat Kohli, and if people consider WWE superstars as athletes, The Rock has 396 million followers on Instagram.

CR7 launched his YouTube account on August 21 and broke the record for the fastest channel to get a million subscribers in just 90 minutes. It's been about a week since the launch, and the Portugal international's channel now has 47 million subscribers.

For what it's worth, LeBron James' "Mind the Game" podcast with JJ Redick has a total of 654,000 subscribers as of this writing.

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LA Lakers already eyeing LeBron James' replacement

The LA Lakers signed LeBron James to a new two-year contract this offseason with a player option for the 2025-26 season. James will be turning 40 years old in December, so it's not surprising that there are rumors about the franchise looking ahead and eyeing a replacement for "King James."

The Ringer's Kevin O'Connor reported on a recent episode of "The Mismatch" that the Lakers are going to target Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks. Doncic is coming off his first NBA Finals appearance, with the Mavericks retooling the roster for another run next season.

"I've reported on this podcast and on The Ringer how they have their sights set for Luka in the future. We'll see if that works out. Dallas just made a Finals. Dallas is looking better than ever with their supporting cast. That may not work out. But the Lakers, by not trading their future picks, clearly they're still thinking long-term at this point. They're not going all in like you might expect many teams to do with LeBron James," O'Connor said. [0:50 onwards]

Doncic has three more years left on his contract, although he can opt out of the deal for the 2026-27 season. He's eligible to sign a supermax contract next summer, which is estimated to break records at $367.5 million.