Twitter recently launched a ‘follower map’ of the top 20 Premier League teams that display their prominence across various countries. The pictorial representation was created on the basis of the number of supporters or Twitter followers a given football (soccer) team has in different regions. The data was extracted from the teams’ official Twitter accounts.
Twitter crates popularity map for football teams
According to the map, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United are the most popular teams. Liverpool dominated the UK, followed by Manchester United and Arsenal. While in London, Arsenal came out to be the most prominent beating Chelsea and Tottenham in their own corresponding areas in the capital city. In addition, Villa-owned Birmingham and Newcastle took hold of the North-east region of the UK.
However, internationally, Arsenal was the most popular throughout Northern Europe, while Chelsea was found to be most loved in the Southern part of the continent. Manchester United had a strong presence in Asia, including India and Pakistan, along with Southern Africa and some regions of the USA. However, most of the United States and neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico were found to support the Arsenal football club.
The dominance of Arsenal in the north and Chelsea in the southern part of Europe is due to the popularity of their managers Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho in their home countries, which are France and Portugal respectively. Another theory says it is due to the national loyalty of the inhabitants of different countries towards the famous players of both the teams.
Football teams have more fans Facebook
It is worth mentioning that these facts are just based on the data present on the Twitter, and do not provide a subjective opinion regarding the fame of teams around the world. But, in terms of mentions, which might be a better parameter to gauge people’s preference on Twitter, Manchester United was found to be the most popular football club.
Of note, football teams actually have more fans on Facebook than Twitter. According to the data, Manchester United leads with 64 million followers on Facebook compared to just 4.87 million fans on Twitter.