From Kaka to Lady Gaga: Twitter’s top 20 most followed

On Wednesday, Brazilian soccer star Kaka, who plays midfielder for Real Madrid, became the first athlete to collect more than 10 million followers on Twitter. He joins an elite group on the social networking site — among the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and President Obama. Twitter Counter, a Web site that offers statistics for Twitter usage, maintains a list of the top 100 Twitter users. Click through to see who (and what) else boasts enough followers to land in the top 20.

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1 - @ladygaga

Lady Gaga broke Twitter records when she became the first Twitter user to reach 20 million followers. But do not forget she was also the first to 10 and 15 million followers. She often shares photos and personal moments. Recent sample tweet: "Is it wrong that sometimes when people call me, I break out into 'Telephone,' my mom always does Beyonce's part."

Charles Krupa / AP

2 - @justinbieber

The Biebs also boasts more than 20 million followers, most of whom are fans to whom he occasionally tweets shoutouts like "love u too" and "u all are my world." He also tweets information about much-anticipated projects, uplifting messages to fans and random lines from his songs -- "Swaggy."

Kevin Winter / Getty Images

3 - @katyperry

Singer Katy Perry makes sure people knows she's a "California gal" in her Twitter bio. She tweets at other celebs with a mix of personal happenings. Sample tweet: "rehearsing for Idol. making it an estrogen fest..."

Fred Prouser / Reuters

4 - @rihanna

Singer Rihanna has a solid collection of Instagram photo tweets and short tweets like "Cry more?... Why for?" Sample tweet: "Watching JT and Ryan Gosling sing Jodeci on the mickey mouse club!!!"

John Shearer / Getty Images for Entertainment Industry Foundation

5 - @britneyspears

Britney Spears tweets about rehearsal and video shoots. She's also on Path, occasionally sharing the songs she's listening to or a quick photo. Sample tweet: "Happy Earth Day! My kids love Rainforest Cafe, therefore let's support the rainforest!"

Danny Moloshok / Reuters

6 - @shakira

Colombian singer Shakira's twitter updates are in a mix of Spanish and English. She posts a mix of photos and videos either relating to music video shoots or causes like early childhood development. Sample tweet: "Glad you're all excited about the 'Addicted To You' video...me too! Can't wait for you to see it. Not long now..."

Valery Hache / AFP/Getty Images

7 - @BarackObama

The 44th president mostly stays on message. On April 24, most of his Tweets pushed his plan to keep low interest rates and high availability for student loans and grants. He also broke news: he and Michelle's first campaign stops are on May 5 in Columbus, Ohio, and Richmond, Va.

Charles Dharapak / AP

8 - @KimKardashian

It would be easy to make fun of the reality TV and tabloid star, but her recent feed included two super-serious messages, one of them in support of Jennifer Hudson. The other? "Today lets all stand together & remember the 1.5 million people who were massacred in the Armenian Genocide. April 24th, 1915.''

Jason Redmond / AP

9 - @taylorswift13

Singer Taylor Swift tries being a regular girl on her feed, when she's not out celebrating Shirley MacLaine's birthday. She makes her own buckwheat pancakes for breakfast and is sometimes "the girl sitting alone in the cafe, taking a picture of her latte.''

Matt Sayles / AP

10 - @YouTube

Of course you're going to get YouTube videos. But very interesting ones. The fare on April 24 included President Obama's slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, a mini-scandal with Rihanna and a promotion for Malaria Day 2012.

Eric Gaillard / Reuters

11 -- @selenagomez

Actress and singer Selena Gomez has used a lot of her tweets to promote appearances and various charities and causes, such as the UNICEF effort in the South Sahel region of Africa. Sample tweet, from April 17: "Performing “Hit The Lights” on Dancing with the Stars tonight!"

Chris Pizzello / AP

Queens-bred rapper, Nicki Minaj, who often retweets her coalition of 'Barbies,' <a data-xslt='_http' href='https://twitter.com/#!/NICKIMINAJ/status/195202939890053120'>returned to Twitter</a> in late April after a brief hiatus. She boasts more than 11 million followers.

12 -- @nickiminaj

Queens-bred rapper, Nicki Minaj, who often retweets her coalition of "Barbies," returned to Twitter in late April after a brief hiatus. She boasts more than 11 million followers.

Slaven Vlasic / Getty Images

13 - @Oprah

TV superstar Oprah Winfrey mixes her feed with inspirational lines, a sense of what she's doing and conversation. Sample: "@perezhilton was in the air with no wifi."

George Burns/OWN / AP

14 - @theellenshow

Comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres uses her site mainly for show guests, though she, too, goes for often cringeworthy one-liners. On April 22, she wrote: ''Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one.''

Phil McCarten / Reuters

15 - @jtimberlake

Justin Timberlake — singer, movie star, ex-Britney boyfriend — mixes up his site with jokes and occasional promo tweets. On April 24, he was preoccupied with #WordsYouWillNeverHearMeSay, like "Damn, I wish I still had those 'NSYNC outfits..." and " "OMG. Look at my Persian kittens scrapbook!"

Facundo Arrizabalaga / AFP/Getty Images

16- @aplusk

Actor Ashton Kutcher was a relatively early Twitter adopter which paid off in his over 10 million followers. He made news in 2009 when he challenged CNN to a race to 1 million Twitter followers. A recent tweet: "Malaria keeps more kids out of school in Africa than any other disease - let's change that."

Robyn Beck / AFP/Getty Images

17 - @Eminem

Eminem is the only account of the top 20 to follow not a single other person on Twitter. His account is a wide variety of promotional videos, iTunes links, and special deals for fans. There are often breaks of days or even months where he does not tweet.

Chris Pizzello / AP

18 - @KAKA

Kaka, right, of Real Madrid, spends lots of time replying to people who have tweeted to him. He mostly tweets in Portuguese but also sometimes translates to English in separate tweets.

Denis Doyle / Getty Images

19 - @Twitter

It would make sense that Twitter's own Twitter account makes the top 20. The account mostly aggregates from their smaller accounts like @gov, @twittersports, @twittermedia, and @twittermusic. It also points to Twitter blog post announcements. Their bio line: "Always wondering what's happening."

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

20 - @chrisbrown

Recording artist Chris Brown has been using his Twitter account to share his Instragram photos as of late.

Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

21 - @Cristiano

Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo is close to the top 20 with over 9 million followers. He mixes photos and videos of matches with other promotional materials. He occasionally tweets in Portuguese.

Javier Soriano / AFP/Getty Images

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