LaLiga has hit a new milestone in its digital strategy, surpassing 200 million followers across the 16 digital platforms on which it operates to round out a season in which it averaged growth of around 1.4 million followers per week. When compared to other major leagues, this achievement positions LaLiga as the leading football competition in terms of number of followers.
With a digital ecosystem that has grown by 40.8 million followers over the course of the campaign, LaLiga is now the most popular of the five major European leagues on social media. In second place is the Premier League with 192.1 million followers (up 33.1 million over this past season), followed by the Bundesliga in third with 38.4 million followers (up 5.8 million), Ligue 1 in fourth with 31.5 million followers with (up 9.8 million), and Serie A in fifth with 28.6 million followers (up 5.9 million).
LaLiga currently has profiles on 16 platforms, including, among others: 12 on Twitter, 3 on Line, 2 on Instagram, 2 on TikTok, and 2 on Facebook; as well as being available in a total of 20 languages (Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Hinglish, Bengali, Turkish, Thai, Bahasa, Russian, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Lingala, Wolof, Swahili, and Pidgin English). A number of these profiles are dedicated to target markets such as China (Weibo, Toutiao, Wechat and Bili Bili), Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia (Line). Furthermore, LaLiga's ability to attract young fans is of particular significance, as the profiles that have grown the most in recent years are those with the lowest average age, as is the case with TikTok.
Alfredo Bermejo, LaLiga’s Director of Digital Strategy, said: “This is a true milestone for LaLiga as we are the first football league to reach this number. This achievement is part of LaLiga’s long-standing commitment to enhancing its digital ecosystem, an objective that helps impact and capture new audiences, accelerate growth, and generate business. Emphasis on creative strategy and engaging content, adapted to digital trends, are the drivers behind this success. Adapting content to different formats, countries and demographics is also key to reaching an ever-wider audience.”
In line with this approach, LaLiga has implemented a plan to support the digital growth of its clubs within the framework of the Boost LaLiga Plan, which has yielded excellent results; their follower numbers have skyrocketed, increasing ninefold since the beginning of the season. This figure reflects the rigorous changes implemented by clubs within their digital environments and the frequent sharing of best practices as part of the Boost LaLiga plan.
A selection of the most important milestones:
The digital strategy was launched following the arrival of Javier Tebas as president in 2013.
LaLiga quickly grew to 6.3 million followers during the 2014/15 season.
LaLiga opened its first international account, the Chinese social network Weibo, in 2015.
LaLiga was the first European football competition to broadcast its matches on Facebook, in a groundbreaking three-season agreement that began in 2018/19. Matches were broadcast in India, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Nepal.
In 2019, LaLiga established dedicated accounts for eLaLiga Santander.
The first major milestone of 100 million social media followers was reached in January 2020, a number which doubled over the following three years.
LaLiga was the first league to create a profile on Twitch.
LaLiga was also the first European league to launch a show on TikTok: Play LaLiga.