The 'big six' EPL teams dominate the popularity rankings, but one team still stands out from them all.
The English Premier League is the world's richest football competition. Its wealth has attracted many top players to the league, which has helped the teams competing in it become incredibly popular worldwide. This popularity, however, is not evenly spread throughout the league and there is a huge gulf between the most and least popular teams. Manchester United have over 80 million followers on Facebook and are by far the most popular team. They are also the most successful having won 20 English top flight titles; the majority of which were achieved during the 90's and 2000's.
- Jump straight to the English Premier League popularity ranking table
- Go to the English Premier League team locations map
Manchester United, however, have not won a Premier League title in over a decade (since the departure of their legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson at the end of the 2012-13 season). It will be interesting to see whether over time other teams can bridge this huge gulf as younger fans around the world start following teams that are having current success. Manchester Uniteds' 'noisy neighbours'Manchester City are the most likely candidates to do this. Data shows they have become much more popular since they started winning premiership titles in the 2011-2012 season.
“Manchester United are by far the most popular team with over 80 million online fans, and have won the most titles”
The other top spots are taken by recent champions league regulars and other members of the so called 'Big Six'; Chelsea (2nd), Manchester City (3rd), Liverpool (4th), Arsenal (5th) and Tottenham (6th).
At the opposite end of the table are newly promoted teams, yo-yo teams and perennial survivors, which include the likes of Burnley, Brentford and Bournemouth. These teams all have under 800,000 on-line fans (that's less than 10% of Manchester United's total). It's always going to be tough for these teams to compete with the more popular clubs, but the longer they stay in the premiership the more chance they will have to increase their global appeal.
We will continue to keep an eye on the data, however, it seems almost inevitable that the gulf between the most and least popular teams in the EPL will widen as access to greater wealth enables the top clubs to keep winning silverware, which in turn leads to more fans and greater wealth. The doomed European Super League was a glimpse into the 'ambition' of the owners of the top clubs to protect their income and effectively close the door on open competition.
