15 Football Clubs With the Most Social Media Followers (2024)

Football is nothing without fans. The best-forgotten COVID-19 years, when games were conducted in empty stadiums across the globe in adherence with health guidelines, turned this cliche into an undeniable truth.

In the modern age of globalisation and improved technology, a club’s fanbase is no longer restricted to the surrounding area. Social media is the root of many evils, namely the abhorrent abuse to which players are subjected after each match, but it does offer a rough guide to the size of each team’s wider group of supporters.

The distribution of users across each social network can also be revealing. While more than a quarter of Facebook’s database is over 45, the largest demographic of TikTok users are aged between 18 and 24. Here are the football clubs with the largest combined social media presence and how many followers they boast on each platform.

15

Al Nassr – 55 million

Saudi Pro League

Al Nassr existed before Cristiano Ronaldo and will continue to be one of the biggest clubs in Saudi Arabian football long after the greatest European player of all time leaves Riyadh. But in the warped world of social media, the nine-time Saudi top-flight champions were afforded a rebirth by the acquisition of Ronaldo in November 2022.

Before the five-time Ballon d’Or winner signed for the Middle Eastern outfit on the eve of the Qatar World Cup, Al Nassr could point to around 850,000 Instagram followers. They now boast north of 26 million. Across the four major social networks, Al Nassr have more followers (55.3 million) than the Saudi Arabian population (36.4 million). Ronaldo may be thought of as one of the most hated athletes across any sport, but distaste has not led to disinterest.

14

Inter Milan – 63 million

Serie A

Inter Milan were born as an offshoot of AC Milan in 1908 to appeal to a wider audience. The second club in the fashion capital of the world was formed without any restrictions on foreign players, which existed in the red and black half of the city. “It shall be called Internazionale because we are brothers of the world,” the founding members declared.

Fittingly, it was under an Argentine coach born to Spanish parents who grew up in Casablanca – which was under French rule at the time – that Inter’s popularity exploded. Mastering the controversial catenaccio style, a typically physical and defensive approach, Helenio Herrera steered the Nerazzurri to three Serie A titles and a pair of European Cups in the 1960s.

13

Atletico Madrid – 63 million

La Liga

It may be for the best that Atletico Madrid’s former owner, Jesus Gil y Gil, passed away before the social media age. One can only imagine what this character – who celebrated the 1996 double win by riding around the pitch on an elephant and was once caught on live TV fighting the director of another club – would have posted to the world.

Diego Simeone is a combustible character on the touchline but pales in comparison to Gil’s outbursts. While his online output is reliably tame, the former club captain is the transformative force behind Atletico’s unprecedented decade of success, leading his team to two titles and a pair of Champions League finals, which has spawned more than 60 million social media followers.

12

AC Milan – 69 million

Serie A

Christian Pulisic delivered for AC Milan on and off the pitch during his debut campaign in Italy. The US starlet directly contributed to 20 league goals without the benefit of any penalties – a tally none of his teammates could better – while opening up access to millions of new eyeballs on the other side of the Atlantic for the Rossoneri.

Milan’s fanbase in the US increased by 50%, according to one study, and general interest in Serie A climbed 27% across America. In terms of tangible social media users, the seven-time European champions gained more than seven million followers across all social media platforms in the last year.

11

Tottenham – 97 million

Premier League

The last time Tottenham Hotspur won a trophy, Twitter – as it was then known – was less than two years old and neither Instagram nor TikTok had launched. Despite the absence of any silverware in the last decade and a half, Spurs have fostered a swollen following through a cleverly targeted approach.

Many point to the influence of Son Heung-min and the hordes of South Korean fans he attracts. There’s no doubt that Son’s popularity has helped the club – Spurs probably wouldn’t have embarked upon a pre-season tour of Southeast Asia without one of the greatest players in the continent’s history in their squad – but Tottenham’s online support is not restricted to South Korea. The club’s official Korean X page has less than 60,000 followers.

Spurs have made an enormous dent in the youthful market of TikTok. More than 36 million users follow the club’s official account, which is clearly run by a group of creative content makers, producing topical and genuinely humorous clips that involve the players. Only two football clubs in the world have more TikTok followers than Tottenham.

10

Arsenal – 102 million

Premier League

Arsenal may have a nine-digit fanbase on social media, but the club are not immune to viral blunders. Mikel Arteta often inspires widespread ridicule for his eccentric motivation techniques. Few have been able to forget the manager’s elaborate team talks laced with props or when he hired pickpockets to teach his team about the value of alertness.

Arteta was at the epicentre of a fierce social media storm in January 2024, when a video emerged of the controversial celebrity chef Nusret Gokce – better known as Salt Bae – feeding Arsenal’s head coach a slice of steak directly off his knife. The ill-fated dining experience sparked outrage but offered little lasting impact on the team. Following the conclusion of Arsenal’s mid-season break, Arteta’s side stormed through the second half of the campaign, racking up 16 wins from 18 games to push Manchester City until the final day.

9

Bayern Munich – 138 million

Bundesliga

Bayern Munich’s popularity across Germany and the wider world is not only evident through the virtual platform of social media. The Bavarian behemoths boast almost 4,000 official fan clubs, scattered everywhere from China to Canada.

Club-record signing Harry Kane visited the small Kirchweidach branch of this international dynasty during his debut season at Bayern. Unlike some past stars who half-heartedly mumbled through the commitment, the club’s new talisman got stuck in. If his mountain of goals hadn’t already done it, Kane firmly won the hearts of the villagers in this rural slice of Bavaria by enthusiastically playing local pub games and answering questions posed by school children all while a life-sized cardboard cutout of himself watched on.

8

Chelsea – 142 million

Premier League

Shortly after Chelsea were forcibly extracted from Roman Abramovich’s ownership, falling under the stewardship of the BlueCo consortium in 2022, the most intriguing social media activity involving the historic west London outfit didn’t concern the club’s official account. Todd Boehly acted as the face of the takeover, prompting newfound scrutiny regarding every tap and click he made online.

The outspoken US investor has taken part in Twitter polls and unwisely liked a tweet promoting an article in which Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella was heavily criticised. The club’s manager at the time, Graham Potter, was forced to address his boss’ online activity and sighed: “It’s nothing that I would say is a reflection of Todd in any way, but I don’t know how social media works.”

7

Liverpool – 144 million

Premier League

Liverpool’s popularity across social media is not thanks to any single individual. The 18-time English champions have also conquered Europe on six separate occasions – more than any other domestic rival. However, boasting one of the most followed footballers on the planet hasn’t hurt the club’s brand expansion.

Mohamed Salah’s unrelenting torrent of goals and friendly demeanour have made him one of the most popular figures in the world, particularly in the region surrounding his native Egypt. The actively apolitical winger appeals to the entire cross-section of society. “Salah is really important because he is a symbol,” Mohamed Farag Amer, head of Egypt’s parliamentary youth and sports committee once said, “like Tutankhamun, like the pyramids.”

6

Juventus – 157 million

Serie A

Juventus’ former president, Gianni Agnelli, put his team’s appeal across the width and breadth of Italy down to the branding of the Turin-based club. “Not having the name of the city has brought us great popularity. It makes us national,” he once explained. At the start of the 21st century, Darwin Pastorin tried to capture Juve’s widespread support in La Repubblica:

Aside from the neutral name – which is Latin for ‘youth’ – Juventus owe their hulking fanbase to the club’s abundant success and the family which funded it. Over the last century, the Agnellis have been intertwined with Juventus, pumping the millions generated by FIAT – the motoring giant they also own – into the club. The first flux of Juve fans from outside the city were descendants of factory workers who temporarily moved to Turin to work for FIAT before returning home with plenty of gold, silver and black-and-white.

5

Manchester City – 160 million

Premier League

In the year that Facebook was launched, Manchester City recorded a lowly 16th-place Premier League finish, only confirming their safety in England’s top flight in May. Over the subsequent two decades, the club have gained dozens of trophies and millions of followers thanks to billions of pounds.

The free-spending regime put in place following Sheikh Mansour’s purchase of the club in 2008 has undoubtedly underpinned the team’s unrivalled success on the pitch. But it would be grossly unfair to suggest that City bought their supporters. Long before benefiting from the riches of Abu Dhabi, the club averaged a staggering attendance of more than 28,000 fans while they were in the third tier of the footballing pyramid back in 1998/99. For comparison, six Premier League teams attracted smaller crowds on average during the 2023/24 campaign.

4

Paris Saint-Germain – 184 million

Ligue 1

Paris Saint-Germain are the only club with more than 25 million total followers that has seen their support shrink since 2023. This is likely a result of the departure of Neymar and Lionel Messi – two players with the largest social media following in the world – in the same summer of 2023. Kylian Mbappe’s free transfer to Real Madrid one year later was the last member of the celebrity trio to leave Paris.

President Nasser Al-Khelaifi called for an end to the “bling-bling” era in June 2022, but the breakup of the club’s star-laden frontline has delivered a dent to PSG’s global marketability. Whether the perennial French champions will have more success on the pitch without such an unbalanced side remains to be seen.

3

Manchester United – 217 million

Premier League

Manchester United may be the most popular English club on social media but they were late to the game. The international giant did not have a Twitter account until after Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 – becoming the last Premier League club to join the platform.

While their virtual advertising took some time to get off the ground, there was a huge pool of fans from every corner of the globe queuing up to follow each official account once it was belatedly created. Even before the Glazer takeover led to the prioritisation of commercial partners above Premier League points, United were one of the first English clubs to harness the potential of their fanbase, opening up a club megastore at Old Trafford and embarking upon pre-season tours of Asia as early as 2001.

2

Barcelona – 363 million

La Liga

Barcelona have not always had a good social media reputation. In February 2020, the Catalan giants were sensationally accused of hiring a consultancy company which created fake accounts to produce critical posts about Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique – two members of the squad at the time – as well as presidential candidate, Victor Font.

The club’s president at the time of the scandal, which became known as ‘Barcagate’, Josep Maria Bartomeu, was arrested when police raided Barcelona’s stadium in March 2021. Bartomeu was released the following day only to later be slapped with corruption and bribery charges regarding the club’s association with La Liga’s governing body of referees. Despite all the scandal – and maybe because of it – Barcelona remain one of the most popular clubs in the world.

1

Real Madrid – 422 million

La Liga

Real Madrid’s 77-year-old president, Florentino Perez, is wary of losing the attention of digital natives. While trying to explain why the world of football desperately needed the hotly controversial European Super League, the construction magnate claimed: “Young people are no longer interested in football. They have other platforms on which to distract themselves.”

Many people of all ages use those “other platforms” to follow Perez’s club. Real Madrid boast the most followers across every major social network and are only increasing their stranglehold over the global market. The 15-time European champions earned 48 million new followers across the 2023/24 campaign – Turkish behemoths Galatasaray only have a total of 45 million online fans.

​​​​​Information via CIES. Correct as of 13th August 2024.