For Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United, no other club has surpassed the 100 million fan mark across their social media. As expected, Real Madrid is the most followed La Liga club on social media and one of only three clubs to break the 100 million fan mark. From the latest list, the Manchester Football Club has reached 74 million fans across various social media platforms.
With 55 million Facebook followers, the Paris-based football club PSG has 66 million fans. Not only do footballers receive love and support from fans all over the world, but football teams also take pride in having huge social media followings. Clubs compete for fans and followers on social media, thereby increasing worldwide visibility and merchandising and sponsorship revenue. Despite their relatively new status among traditional world football powerhouses, Paris Saint-Germain’s online presence is considerable, with almost 100 million followers.
In addition to connecting with their fans, clubs also make money from the number of paid posts their players make on Instagram. According to last year’s research, in the 2019/20 season, Premier League clubs earned a total of 3.9 million through player posts on Instagram.
Arsenal has a sizable Instagram presence with over 19 million followers, but their numbers have grown slowly from last year compared to other major clubs. Manchester City has over 25 million followers on Instagram. That number is set to increase if they continue to do well in the Premier League and finally win the Champions League.
FC Barcelona has 102 million likes on its official Facebook page 63 million followers on its Instagram profile; FCB is followed by 52 million people on Twitter and 5 million active subscribers on its YouTube channel. Bayern Munich has the most followers on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and can understandably claim to be the biggest club in the world. Barely beating major rivals, Bayern Munich, with around 1.1 million followers, Real Madrid claimed the crown of the most famous club in the world. With 237 million fans, Real Madrid tops the list of football clubs with the most extensive fan base globally. Barcelona is the dominant world football power with over 250 million social media followers and approximately 350 million fans worldwide.
Manchester United only follows Facebook almost twice as much as Arsenal, and it’s no wonder they have posted all of Cristiano Ronaldo’s content available since his return to the club after a 12-year absence. Still, Manchester United is well behind Real Madrid and Barcelona. City’s 41.2 million Facebook followers have only improved compared to Manchester United and Chelsea in the Premier League. At the same time, they beat the Blues on YouTube and have the same Tik Tok followers of around 4.9 million people.