Real Madrid and Barcelona dominate global social media following in CIES ranking

Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two most followed football clubs in the world across major social media platforms, according to the latest CIES Football Observatory ranking, underlining how the biggest brands continue to separate at the top of the digital attention economy.CIES said Real Madrid lead the global table with 488 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, ahead of Barcelona on 442 million.Manchester United sit third on 239 million, with Paris Saint-Germain fourth on 208 million, a top tier that reflects both on-pitch profile and a long-running focus on international audience growth.CIES said the top 10 clubs now total 2.36 billion followers across the selected platforms, up 3.8% year on year, reinforcing that global football’s biggest digital assets are still expanding despite increased competition for attention.Bayern Munich recorded the strongest growth across the top 10 over the past year, adding 16.1 million followers, equivalent to 11% growth, a signal that consistent performance, star power and brand distribution can still deliver meaningful uplift even at scale.The report also offers a snapshot of where football fandom sits by platform.Instagram and Facebook each account for 31% of top-10 followers, with TikTok on 17%, X on 16% and YouTube on 5%, a split that highlights the continued weight of legacy networks alongside TikTok’s rise as a discovery channel.From a commercial perspective, the distribution matters because it shapes sponsor activation formats.Instagram and TikTok remain central for short-form storytelling and creator-led campaigns, Facebook still delivers scale in older demographics, and YouTube has a smaller share but retains value for longer-form content and searchable archives.The ranking also reflects the geographic breadth of club audiences.CIES said 25 countries are represented in the top 100, spanning every continent except Oceania, with Spain providing the most clubs in the top 100 with 21 teams, followed by England with 17 and Brazil with 11.CIES noted Spanish clubs often have particularly strong TikTok followings, aligning with the way LaLiga has pushed social distribution and short-form highlight storytelling in recent cycles.Outside Europe, the leading clubs by total followers are Flamengo on 71.6 million, Al-Nassr on 66.0 million and Al-Ahly on 60.1 million, illustrating the scale possible for top brands in markets where domestic reach is high and diaspora audiences are significant.For clubs, the business takeaway is that follower totals remain a proxy for global relevance that supports sponsorship pricing, merchandise demand and content monetisation.The competitive layer is now less about simply growing and more about sustaining growth across multiple platforms while converting audience scale into measurable revenue outcomes.