Man Utd-Arsenal social showdown

Ahead of Manchester United’s firecracker clash with Arsenal, we investigate the clubs’ punching power on social media.

Man United’s social media engagement is bigger than any other team or celebrity and on par with a religion, sporting director Richard Arnold claimed this month.

Indeed, United top the Premier League with 95.2m followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, followed by Chelsea (62.1m) and Arsenal (53.9m).

However, Spanish giants Barcelona (155.4m) and Real Madrid (153.8m) surpass the English clubs across the three social platforms, according to sports index provider Brandtix.

The clubs’ global popularity is also reflected on Google internet searches, with United once again reigning supreme over their London rivals. 

Since 2004, Arsenal have only ever overtaken Man United in search popularity on four occasions: towards the end of 2005/06 season, in February 2011/12, August 2011 and August 2013.

Over the last 12 months, Manchester United have been more popular in the majority of countries around the world on Google, conquering Arsenal in 194 out of 218 countries.

Man United and Arsenal are also the two biggest English teams on Twitter, with United leading the way on 9.3m followers compared to Arsenal’s 8.5m.

The Gunners have a stronger presence in the Americas, while United have a larger fan base in Asia.

Four of last season’s top 10 tweeted moments came from Arsenal and Man United clashes, with the Gunners winning 3-0 at the Emirates and United claiming a 3-2 victory at Old Trafford.

Outside of the games involving Leicester’s fairytale journey, Arsenal’s 3-0 win over United was the most-talked about match of the season globally with more than 1.7 million Tweets.

Brandtix CEO Jon Rosenblatt, said: …

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