With a fanbase of over 270 million people, Real Madrid narrowly beats Barcelona and leads all European clubs in online engagement. According to the latest "European Football Club Report", the Merengues have a total of 273.4 million followers, while the Blaugrana own a total of 265.1 million, while Manchester United sit below in a distant third place with 168.1.

The report, put together by Italian group IQUII Sport, adds the followers of four major social media: Facebook (measured in page likes), Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Both Spanish powerhouses have their huge lead over the rest of the continent built upon their massive Facebook and Instagram numbers. Real Madrid has 111.3 and 113.8 million followers respectively. Barça's numbers are not that distant: 103.3 and 107.4.

The rest of the top 10 for total numbers includes PSG (122.2), Juventus (110.6), Chelsea (107.1), Liverpool (102.6), Bayern Munich (94.2), Manchester City (86.9) and Arsenal (80.9). AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur, Inter, Borussia Dortmund, Atlético de Madrid, AS Roma, Leicester City, AS Monaco, Olympique de Marseille and Ajax Amsterdam are 11th to 20th, respectively.

Barça stronger on Twitter and Youtube

The table would be slightly different considering only Twitter and YouTube. The Blaugrana would be on top with a total of 54.3 million followers stacked against 48.4 from Real Madrid. United would still be third, but not so distant, with 36.3.

Ajax leads in growth percentage

From March to April, Ajax Amsterdam leads the table in growth percentage. The Dutch have increased their numbers by 1.89% in the period. That doesn't translate, however, to raw numbers since Ajax has only 13 million total followers, which is a little less than 5% of Real Madrid's total. Back to percentage-wise, the other top 5 in growth are Liverpool (1.04%), Olympique (1.04%), Manchester City (1.02%) and Chelsea (1.01%).

In their study, IQUII Sport takes into account 10 countries: England, Russia, Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ukraine. They claim to analyse numbers from 15 leagues and almost 300 clubs. Their latest numbers - the ones mentioned in this article - are from March 14 to April 11, 2022.