Cristiano Ronaldo's YouTube channel draws over 4.5m subscribers within hours

Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo launched his YouTube channel on Wednesday and hundreds of thousands of subscribers signed up within a couple of hours.

The 39-year-old five-time Ballon D'Or winner is currently playing for Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr.

"The wait is over. My @YouTube channel is finally here! SIUUUbscribe and join me on this new journey," Ronaldo posted on his social media accounts.

A couple of hours after posting his first video, 1.69 million subscribers had joined the channel while the number has mounted to over 4.45 million with 18 videos posted by the ace footballer on the world's largest video-sharing platform.

Ronaldo has 112.5 million followers on the X platform, 170 million on Facebook and 636 million on Instagram.

Days before he launched his YT channel, the Portuguese footballer dropped hints for his latest initiative, igniting excitement among his fans who predicted that the sports star would launch a new podcast or he would get himself involved in a media project linked to a certain product.

The Al Nassr legend on August 17 posted a video on his social media, showing himself trying repeatedly to record a video of himself in a living room set in a studio.

In the video, Ronaldo was asked not to make a video of himself by another person who wasn't shown in the video.

Additionally, in the beginning of the video, a voice-over can be heard saying: "When you ask Cristiano Ronaldo not to share info about his new project."