#sportonsocial 2022 Fifa World Cup
Global research, digital and social media agency Redtorch explored the world of social in the aftermath of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, where magical Messi was confirmed as most engaged with player at the tournament.
It was yet another accolade for the Argentinian superstar as he racked up more social media engagements than any other player at the tournament.
Messi amassed 281,706,038 engagements and 24,055,162 new followers during the tournament. His post in the aftermath of victory has reached 56m likes and counting, making it the most liked in the platform’s history.
New world champions Argentina – nicknamed the Albiceleste because of their ‘White and Sky Blue’ kit – ranked no.1 for new followers (their 4.1m was 17% of the total) and 3rd for engagements with 274.1m. They also had the post which evoked the strongest emotional response from fans – a photo of Messi lifting the World Cup trophy and the message: “The picture you always dreamed of, we always dream. Thank you, Captain!”
Player Social Media Rankings
When it came down to players, 6 of the top 10 most engaged with players on social media were Argentinian. First, second and third place for engagement and number of new followers was taken by Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, respectively.
Messi and Ronaldo generated more engagements than the rest of the top 10 players combined (538.7m vs 461.3m), while half of the players in the top 10 for new followers were semi-finalists.
Team Social Media Rankings
France generated 418.3m social media engagements to top the engagement table – that’s 44% more than England who came in at second place.
While the French finished second in the ranking for new followers, semi-finalist Morocco grew their audiences by 1.6m, 84% of which came from Instagram.
Content
Over the duration of the tournament, and accounting for nearly 56% of the total engagement share, Instagram generated 1.2b engagements ahead of TikTok at 635.3m and Facebook at 147m.
The most emotive content from the FIFA World Cup was:
- Argentina’s post – a photo of Messi lifting the World Cup trophy and the message: “The picture you always dreamed of, we always dream. Thank you, Captain!”
2. Germany’s covered-mouth protest against FIFA’s ban of the OneLove armband.
3. Morocco celebrates victory over Canada.
