What is the most popular football club in the world?

How do you measure the popularity of a club?

There are several ways to measure a football club's popularity. For example, you can look at social media followers or merchandise revenue.

Social media

In June 2024, the CIES Football Observatory tallied the number of followers of football clubs on various social media platforms and compiled a ranking of the most followed football clubs.

1. Real Madrid - 410.9 million
2. FC Barcelona - 360.7 million
3. Manchester United - 216.3 million
4. Paris Saint-Germain - 184.1 million
5. Manchester City - 158.4 million
6. Juventus - 155.8 million
7. Liverpool - 144.5 million
8. Chelsea - 141.7 million
9. Bayern Munich - 137.1 million
10. Arsenal - 102.4 million

Real Madrid and Barcelona are by far the most popular football clubs on social media. It's no coincidence that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the most followed footballers on Instagram and have played for these clubs. After Ronaldo's transfers to Juventus and Messi's to PSG, these clubs saw a dramatic increase in their follower counts. Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr now has over 55 million followers, and Inter Miami over 34 million. In short, based on social media, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the most popular football clubs in the world.

Merchandise revenue

By looking at merchandise sales revenue, you can estimate a football club's popularity. The most recent figures are for 2023. This list is in millions of euros.

1. FC Barcelona - 179
2. Real Madrid - 155
3. Bayern Munich - 147
4. Liverpool - 132
5. Manchester United - 130
6. Paris Saint-Germain - 97
7. Arsenal - 89
8. Chelsea - 87
9. Juventus - 74
10. Tottenham - 74
    

Once again, Barcelona and Real Madrid are at the top, but this time Barcelona is ahead of Real Madrid. The difference between Bayern Munich's social media followers and merchandise sales is also striking.

Conclusion

The fact that Real Madrid has the most followers, but Barcelona has a higher merchandise turnover, makes it difficult to draw a clear conclusion. Just like in the Spanish league, the difference between the two clubs is small, and based on the figures, it's impossible to conclude that one club is more popular than the other. For now, we'll settle for a draw.