Conor McGregor remains one of the most popular athletes in the world despite not fighting in over 17 months.
The Notorious has not stepped foot in the octagon since suffering a horror leg break and his second consecutive defeat to Dustin Poirier in July 2021.
But new research shows from Oddspedia, who used Buzzsumo’s database, has revealed the top 30 most popular athletes of 2022 that have been hitting the headlines.
READ MORE: Conor McGregor posts on social media at 3am to show off bizarre photo of his calves
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list, having dominated news over the past 12 months. From being linked with a summer move away from Manchester United to his recent interview with Piers Morgan and Portugal's World Cup exit, the 37-year-old has never been far away from the headlines. He amassed an incredible 227,048 articles published online this year.
The top three positions are taken exclusively by football superstars, coming in second is Brazil's Neymar and Argentina's Lionel Messi, who all have over 182k and 85k articles written about them.
Only two entries are from British athletes. In 10th place is Stevenage-born, Lewis Hamilton, who has has 52,242 headlines about him this year. The second Brit on the list is 34-year old Tyson Fury, who's had multiple u-turns about retirement. Fury has amassed 39,137 articles online this year.
Social media influencer turned boxer Jake Paul (19th) has perhaps surprisingly ranked higher than his fellow fighters Canelo Álvarez (22nd) and McGregor (27th).
Serena Williams is the only female athlete on the top 30 list. After a 27-year career, which saw her win 23 grand slams, she announced her retirement in the iconic Vogue interview in August only to come out later to say "I am not retired" at the San Francisco conference in October.
The top 30 also features 21-time grand slam winner Novak Djokovic (5), GOATs Tom Brady (9) and LeBron James (7), India's most successful test captain Virat Kohli (6), PSG's Kylian Mbappe (11) and Man City striker Erling Haaland (14).
The list comprises of eight football players, five basketball players, three boxers, four tennis players, three cricketers, two American football players, two F1 drivers, two wrestlers and one athlete from the world of golf and MMA.
American's dominate the list of athletes with over a third of the top thirty born in the States. The list also has three athletes France and India.
The full rankings are as follows:
| Rank | Athlete | Sport | Country | Articles |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Football | Portugal | 227,048 |
| 2 | Neymar | Football | Brazil | 182,562 |
| 3 | Lionel Messi | Football | Argentina | 85,031 |
| 4 | Tom Brady | American Football | United States | 84,117 |
| 5 | Novak Djokovic | Tennis | Serbia | 81,058 |
| 6 | Virat Kohli | Cricket | India | 79,048 |
| 7 | LeBron James | Basketball | United States | 71,953 |
| 8 | Rafael Nadal | Tennis | Spain | 60,467 |
| 9 | Max Verstappen | Formula One | Belgium | 59,357 |
| 10 | Lewis Hamilton | Formula One | England | 52,242 |
| 11 | Kylian Mbappe | Football | France | 51,243 |
| 12 | Serena Williams | Tennis | United States | 47,626 |
| 13 | Stephen Curry | Basketball | United States | 46,901 |
| 14 | Erling Haaland | Football | Norway | 40,485 |
| 15 | Tyson Fury | Boxing | England | 39,137 |
| 16 | Rohit Sharma | Cricket | India | 38,972 |
| 17 | Kyrie Irving | Basketball | United States | 38,714 |
| 18 | Kevin Durant | Basketball | United States | 38,464 |
| 19 | Jake Paul | Boxing | United States | 37,977 |
| 20 | Roman Reigns | Wrestling | United States | 36,366 |
| 21 | Roger Federer | Tennis | Switzerland | 34,301 |
| 22 | Canelo Álvarez | Boxing | Mexico | 33,399 |
| 23 | Tiger Woods | Golf | United States | 33,332 |
| 24 | Aaron Rodgers | American Football | United States | 31,445 |
| 25 | Karim Benzema | Football | France | 30,188 |
| 26 | Mohamed Salah | Football | Egypt | 28,246 |
| 27 | Conor McGregor | MMA | Ireland | 26,644 |
| 28 | Brock Lesnar | Wrestling | United States | 22,390 |
| 29 | Paul Pogba | Football | France | 22,307 |
| 30 | MS Dhoni | Cricket | India | 21,616 |
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