Barça generates more engagement with fans on social media than any other club

• The Club closed the 2017/18 season with more than 1.3 billion interactions for content published on its digital channels, ahead of Real Madrid (1.027 billion) and Manchester United (782 million).

• Barça has solidified its overall lead on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, finishing first in nine of the last 12 months.

FC Barcelona’s on-field success in the 2017/18 season has also extended to the field of social media. The Club closed the 2017/18 season with more than 1.3 billion interactions, surpassing not only all other football clubs around the world, but also clubs in every other sport. According to data culled from Blinkfire and Crowdtangle, Barça came out on top in terms of international interactions, followed by the following teams: Real Madrid (1.027 billion), Manchester United (782 million), Chelsea (354 million) and Bayern Munich (348 million).

Barça’s 3–0 El Clásico victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in December, the Club’s signings during the winter transfer market, the team’s La Liga–Copa del Rey domestic double, and the farewell of Andrés Iniesta were the biggest highlights contributing to these extraordinary social media figures. Looking at the data more closely, it is worth noting that Barça’s digital lead is on the main platforms — Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — and was virtually constant throughout the season. In fact, Barça led every club in interactions in nine of the last 12 months, falling short of the top spot in just three of those months.

Average monthly engagement on Barça’s social media accounts (which includes likes, comments, shares, retweets and reactions for published content) was around 110 million interactions, with November and June being the only months in which Barça fell short of 100 million. In January, with the arrival of Philippe Coutinho and Yerry Mina, and the announcement of Javier Mascherano's farewell, Barça reached its peak, with 181 million interactions.

Number one in video views, too

Audiovisual content is, in any content strategy, the main driver. It is also another area where FC Barcelona leads the way, as indicated by the 2 billion views of its videos that were recorded from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. In other words, a daily average of 5.4 million views of the content that Barça publishes on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

YouTube, the pioneering audiovisual platform and the one on which the most video content is generated each day, also saw Barça in the number 1 position. In a single year, it generated a total of 213 million views on its own channel, well above its main pursuers: the Premier League champions, Manchester City (76 million), and the Champions League finalists, Liverpool (73 million). But, in addition to views, FC Barcelona also grew the most on YouTube, with 1.4 million new subscribers.

Matches are the key moments

As in most sports, the biggest moment for fan social media activity revolves around game days. Of the 1.3 billion total interactions throughout the season, some 39% of them came during, and up to 24 hours after, the 58 official matches played in the 2017/18 season.

A community of more than 321 million fans

FC Barcelona currently has 321 million total fans on all its various social media channels, including all the different languages and all the Clubs professional teams. In the last 12 months alone, Barça’s different social media accounts have added an average of more than 585,000 new fans per week. But beyond social media growth, the analysis shows that fan engagement is becoming ever more important, and is where Barça is constantly extending its lead.