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Comparing club social media engagements from a summer of soccer

August 13, 2024

This summer, the United States once again served as a playground for some of Europe’s biggest soccer clubs as they embarked on pre-season tours across the country. Tournaments like the Premier League Summer Series and the DIRECTV Soccer Champions Tour allowed the likes of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, and Chelsea to showcase their squads to their stateside fanbases.

But the action wasn’t just on the field. Clubs used these tours and subsequent exposure to the American market to leverage their social media channels and engage with millions of fans worldwide, amplifying their presence beyond the stadiums in which they play.

We closely monitored several key club social media accounts in June and July, analyzing trends and interactions that defined the summer for these clubs and their U.S. tours. From engagement growth patterns to viral posts to platform performance, we put together the proverbial “postcards” that captured the true essence of the best summer of soccer yet.

Madrid’s brand, Chelsea’s growth impress

Real Madrid is arguably the biggest club and brand in world soccer—and sports in general, for that matter. This becomes apparent when you realize Madrid are the first club to collect $1 billion in revenue during a single season. The prestige of Madrid’s brand is also on display when analyzing total engagements over the summer across the club’s social media channels.

Real Madrid saw over 758 million engagements (likes, comments, reactions) in June and July across the club’s Facebook, X, and Instagram accounts—by far the most among the seven clubs we analyzed.

Fun fact: if you total the engagements of the other six clubs we analyzed (roughly 834 million), Real Madrid’s total engagements equaled 91% of the others’ engagements.

Interestingly, Real Madrid is the only club which had more engagements in June compared to July, when these clubs were in the U.S. on their pre-season tours. This is likely due to Real Madrid’s UEFA Champions League Final win on June 1, which resulted in many liked posts featuring highlights from the game and victory parade.

Speaking of June versus July, which team saw the largest month-to-month engagement growth over the summer? That would be Chelsea, which achieved a 127% increase in total engagements from June to July, including a mark of 134% growth on Instagram and 137% growth on X.

Manchester United and Barcelona were the two clubs behind Chelsea, seeing 112% and 99% growth across their social media channels, respectively.

Clubs see most engagement on Instagram

Most clubs we analyzed saw growth in engagement throughout the summer, but not all social media platforms were created equal. Clubs saw their Instagram accounts produce nearly 8x more engagements than their Facebook and Twitter accounts combined. 

As mainly a short-form video content platform, Instagram is a perfect channel for showing clips from training, interactions with fans, and game highlights that are easily digestible for fans around the world.

Instagram’s diverse audience, range of interactive features and tools, and high engagement rate make it the best platform for publishing content. Users are active and spending a lot of time on the platform, creating the strongest opportunity for brands to build a constant, direct connection with their fans.

Michelle Buchman

Digital Director, For Soccer

Another interesting datapoint to note: La Liga teams we analyzed saw the largest share of their June and July engagements come from Instagram – Barcelona with 93% and Real Madrid not far behind with 92%.

The Premier League teams we analyzed, however, saw Instagram’s share of engagements range all the way from 88% (Manchester City) to 64% (Arsenal).

Viral postcards from a summer of soccer

The past few months were dubbed “the summer of soccer” by many as pre-season tours were preceded by premier international tournaments like the Euros and Copa América. With so many legendary and competitive moments to highlight, which posts from the social accounts of the seven clubs went viral and saw the most engagements? To no surprise, all of the most-engaged posts were on Instagram.

#1 – Mbappe Introduction

Unsurprisingly, the introduction of Kylian Mbappe as Real Madrid’s newest #9 took top spot with over 12.5 million engagements. Mbappe’s free transfer to Los Blancos certainly was one of the biggest storylines of the summer as arguably the world’s best player is now on the world’s best team. 

#2 – Lamine Yamal’s New Number

FC Barcelona took second spot, specifically one of their youngest and brightest stars. Lamine Yamal, who helped Spain win their record fourth European Championship, came back to FC Barcelona with a new jersey number. Yamal will be the club’s new #19.

#3 – City Fan Gets Head in the Game

While not a clip from this past summer, this clip has continued to live on in social media lore. As City midfielder Rodri blasts a shot over the crossbar, a City fan literally gets his head in the game and heads the ball away before starting a “City!, City!” chant in the stands. A truly legendary fan moment that highlights the passion of the game amongst its fanbase.

Other viral posts from the summer: