LaLiga’s Surprising Social Media Leaders
While Real Madrid and FC Barcelona capture the attention of a global audience, the rest of the LaLiga’s clubs are serious candidates to lead in the digital sphere.
There are many clubs who have experienced even greater growth than the two LaLiga giants over the first half of the current season. In some cases, there has been enormous exponential growth.
Over the first half of this season, Cádiz CF have been the club with the greatest percentage growth in their follower count, whilst RC Celta, have been performing well on social media with the best engagement ratio on their social channels.
The clubs enjoying the most social media growth
Newly promoted sides Cádiz CF and SD Huesca are the clubs with the best numbers in terms of percentage growth at the global level since July 1st 2020.
Andalusian club, Cádiz CF’s good performances on the pitch, where they’ve defeated both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, have surely contributed to this rise as well. Overall, they’ve grown their global followers by 57.9% between Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok bringing in more than 197,000 new followers in this time.
In Huesca’s case, the club’s follower base has grown 20.5% on the same social media platforms, showing just how much LaLiga Santander is discussed online.
Alongside these two clubs, the third team with the greatest relative growth in followers is Sevilla FC which has grown by 15.4% on social media, with almost 613,000 new followers. This makes them the fourth-top club in the ranking for the most followers, after only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid.
26 million new followers
Sevilla are followed by SD Eibar (with follower growth of 15.2%) and Elche CF (14.8%) to complete the top five. Getafe CF (14%), Villarreal CF (14%), Granada CF (11.8%), Real Valladolid (11%) and CA Osasuna (10.5%) then close out the top 10.
In total, according to the data collected by LaLiga’s business intelligence department, LaLiga Santander clubs achieved more than 26 million new followers over the first half of 2020/21, reflecting the significant rise in interest in the league around the world. There has also been an increase in interaction with clubs’ posts.
Ranking of clubs with the greatest growth in social media followers, 2020/21
Club |
% follower growth 2020/21 |
1. Cádiz CF |
57.9% |
2. SD Huesca |
20.5% |
3. Sevilla FC |
15.4% |
4. SD Eibar |
15.2% |
5. Elche CF |
14.8% |
6. Getafe CF |
14.0% |
7. Villarreal CF |
14.0% |
8. Granada CF |
11.8% |
9. Real Valladolid |
11.0% |
10. CA Osasuna |
10.5% |
The clubs with the greatest impact on social media
Looking at engagement, understood as the sum of user interactions with posts without counting video view counts, RC Celta has been rewarded for its original way of communicating online.
Using pixelart, the club has created graphics that show their players as if they were video game characters from the 1980s.
Despite being the club with the second fewest publications on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter over the first half of the season, Celta still generate impressive interaction. Their engagement ratio is the highest for all of the division’s clubs, at 1,431 per post. From their 3,410 publications over this period, they have had more than 6 million interactions.
Huesca are also well-positioned in this ranking. They’re the only club whose engagement ratio comes close to that of Celta, hitting 1,408. The difference when compared with Celta is that Huesca haven’t yet had a run of good results.
Cádiz are also on this podium with a ratio of 1,217. In fourth is Granada CF, whose season has been good in Europe as well as in Spain, with 1,170. CA Osasuna, who have redeveloped their El Sadar stadium, are fifth with 1,096. Then there’s Getafe, one of the clubs who have been the most active in the past two transfer markets, with 1,040. They’re the last team with over 1,000 interactions per post.
The top 10 is then rounded out by Elche (engagement ratio of 971), Real Betis (892), Real Valladolid (818), Athletic Club (503) and Sevilla (489).
Ranking of clubs with the greatest social media engagement ratios, 2020/21
Club |
Engagement ratio 2020/21 |
1. Celta de Vigo |
1,431 |
2. SD Huesca |
1,408 |
3. Cádiz CF |
1,217 |
4. Granada CF |
1,170 |
5. CA Osasuna |
1,096 |
6. Getafe CF |
1,040 |
7. Elche CF |
971 |
8. Real Betis |
892 |
9. Real Valladolid |
818 |
10. Athletic Club |
503 |
According to this data from the LaLiga business intelligence department, there have been almost 1.8 billion interactions from across the world on the aforementioned social media platforms over the first half of this season.