SEE THE LIST
Spanish clubs appear in the top-3 of followers this year
Published on December 23, 2024 at 6:33 pm
Real Madrid stands out on and off the field Credit: Disclosure/Real Madrid
Used to shining in European competitions, Spanish clubs also stand out on social media. A study released this Monday shows that Real Madrid was the team that gained the most followers this year, followed by Barcelona and Atlético de Madrid. Among Brazilians, Flamengo and Palmeiras appear among those that grew the most.
The data was collected by Football Benchmark, a data and analysis platform, and measures the growth of clubs on social media in the period between December 17, 2023 and the same date this year. Real accumulated 44.5 million new followers across all platforms. Barça won 23.8 million and Atlético, 18 million.
Juventus and Manchester City are close behind, completing the Top 5, with 13.3 million new fans. Even in third place, Atlético stood out for its greater growth from a proportional point of view. The Madrid team showed an increase of 34%, compared to 11% for Real and 6% for Barcelona.
“Clubs’ actual fans already follow them on social media or channels of their choice, and the increase in the number of followers resulting from them is residual, and generally follows the birth rate of the previous decade”, says Thiago Freitas, COO of Roc Nation Sports in Brazil, the company manages the careers of hundreds of athletes.
“What we observe with these most popular clubs arises from two vectors, of increasing weight. One, related to stars, athletes who make their fans, generally from other countries, start to follow their new club, as happened with the French who started following Real Madrid publications through Mbappé. The other is related to the number of people who don’t support a specific club, but want to get involved with the sport in some way, whether for entertainment or related business.”
Among Brazilian clubs, Flamengo and Palmeiras appear among those that grew the most on social media during this period. The Rio team gained 4 million new followers, while the São Paulo team gained 3.6 million. Corinthians appears in third, with 3.1 million.
Check out the Top 10 clubs that gained the most followers this year:
2nd – Barcelona: 23.8 million (+6%)
3rd – Atlético de Madrid: 18 million (+34%)
4th – Juventus: 13.3 million (+9%)
5th – Manchester City: 13.3 million (+8%)
6th – Liverpool: 9.9 million (+7%)
7th – Borussia Dortmund: 9.8 million (+17%)
8th – Al Nassr: 8 million (+17%)
9th – Tottenham: 7.5 million (+8%)
10th – Manchester United: 7 million (+3%)
