Which is the largest football club in the world? There are several ways to measure that: perhaps the number of titles won? The crowds they receive on their stadiums? The revenue they get each year? Different metrics might be used to try to bring some light into an otherwise subjective topic, but if we take a look at a very contemporary metric such as the number of social media followers, we find a clear winner: Real Madrid.
The Football Benchmark data analyst has looked which clubs have gained the most followers between December 17, 2023, and December 17, 2024. And Real Madrid, which already was the most followed club in the world, gained a whopping 44.5 million new followers, across all their social media platforms (Facebook, Instagra, X, TikTok. YouTube and Weibo), an 11% increase over 2023.
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Real Madrid is followed, by some distance, by FC Barcelona, which won 23.8 million followers, a 6% increase. And third is Atlético de Madrid, which gained 34% more followers than in 2023.
This is a metric taking into account football clubs around the world, but if we take into account other clubs like Real Sociedad, Cádiz, Betis or Athletic Bilbao, Spanish take more than 50% of the charts. Are Spanish fans more used to social media?
While the number of followers is mostly meaningless in regards to prestige, Real Madrid is also "champion" in other category: it was once again the most valuable football club in the world in 2024, according to Forbes, although very far from the sums of money the NFL and NBA teams are used to...