Major Spanish club Real Madrid gained 45.1 million new followers on social media in the 2023/24 season. However, growth in Europe’s five biggest football leagues has slowed.
All this comes from the data from >> Football Benchmark out. Real Madrid gained more followers than any other club and had the most participation. The club’s content on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X generated 2.418 million interactions. Al Nassr came second in terms of new fans in the 2023/24 season, ahead of Manchester City, FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid.
LaLiga fan growth dropped from 28.8 percent in the 2022/23 season to 5.9 percent in the 2023/24 season. Premier League growth fell from 20.2 per cent to 9.4 per cent. Ligue 1 achieved growth of 35.7 percent in 2023/24 compared to 47.8 percent in the previous season.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have contributed significantly to the growth of fans in Major League Soccer (MLS) and the Saudi Pro League. YouTube and TikTok were the main channels through which clubs gained the most new followers.
Real’s Jude Bellingham gained 21.9 million followers, a 159 percent increase, more than any other player in Europe’s Big Five. Ronaldo Al Nassr has 47.8 million more followers than any other player.
The top 20 clubs with the most followers in the 2023/24 season included seven from LaLiga, five from the Premier League and three from the Saudi Pro League. Ligue 1, which has seen a smaller decline in followers compared to the other Big Five leagues, has been able to gain much of its following through TikTok. This shows the growing influence of the platform in sports marketing and fan engagement.
France’s top league and Italy’s Serie A have boosted their presence on the Chinese Weibo platform. The Bundesliga, Premier League and LaLiga, on the other hand, focused heavily on YouTube and TikTok.
The renewed interest in the Saudi Pro League has seen the competition almost catch up with the Bundesliga and Serie A in terms of fan growth. The MLS also gained 5.9 million new fans during the analysis period, surpassing the fan growth of the top leagues in Germany and Italy.
Football Benchmark also found that the 2023/24 season saw significant changes in social media engagement across leagues, clubs and players. The performances of the MLS and the Saudi Pro League reflected the changing dynamics of soccer’s digital landscape.
Real Madrid have added another star player to their ranks with the signing of Kylian Mbappé. The French striker gained 16.2 million followers on social media in 2023/24 and will be officially unveiled as a real player at the Santiago Bernabéu on 16 July.