Ronaldo won the honour at the inaugural Best Fifa Football Awards in Zurich.
Real Madrid and Portugal forward Ronaldo, beat Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann to win the prize.
31-year-old Ronaldo also won the Ballon d'Or in December 2016.
Both are recognition for success in the Champions League with Real and Euro 2016 with Portugal.
Carli Lloyd of the United States was named the world's best female player.
Leicester's Claudio Ranieri was named best men's coach, ex-Germany boss Silvia Neid won the female coach award.
Penang's Mohd Faiz Subri received the Puskas award for the best goal of 2016.
FIFA has ended its association with Ballon d'Or awards in 2015 and introduced the Best FIFA Football Awards with Ronaldo as its first recipient.
Voting for the player and coach categories was by national team captains and managers, selected journalists and, for the first time, an online poll of fans.
The fan award went to supporters of Liverpool and German club Borussia Dortmund. Colombian side Atletico Nacional were given the fair play award.
Records by Ronaldo- 44 games, 42 goals, 14 assists.
- The third best minutes-per-goal rate (83.68) of anyone scoring a minimum of 10 goals across Europe's top five leagues during 2016.
- Finishing top scorer in the Champions League in 2015-16 with 16 goals.
- Ronaldo and Messi have a history of not voting for each other for major awards.
