Most popular NFL teams on Facebook and Twitter

It has become a regular occurrence to see NFL teams trolling each other on social media.

In fact – every NFL team hires a social media team to do just that. Followers can ramp up quickly when two teams get into it on Twitter, but which teams are winning the social media battle?

Here’s a breakdown of how many Facebook likes and Twitter followers every NFL team has.

The data was collected from every teams official Facebook and Twitter accounts in 2015.

AFC East

• New England Patriots: 6,086,535 Likes + 1,421,374 Followers = 7,507,909 Total
• New York Jets: 1,845,755 Likes + 788,119 Followers = 2,633,874 Total
• Miami Dolphins: 2,064,678 Likes + 463,815 Followers = 2,528,493 Total
• Buffalo Bills: 737,455 Likes + 387,201 Followers = 1,124,656 Total

AFC North

• Pittsburgh Steelers: 6,079,867 Likes + 1,005,799 Followers = 7,085,675 Total
• Baltimore Ravens: 2,274,110 Likes + 630,935 Followers = 2,905,045 Total
• Cleveland Browns: 1,150,223 Likes + 475,008 Followers = 1,625,231 Total
• Cincinnati Bengals: 1,085,950 Likes + 384,568 Followers = 1,470,518 Total

AFC South

• Indianapolis Colts: 2,229,403 Likes + 429,211 Followers = 2,658,614 Total
• Houston Texans: 1,982,055 Likes + 646,709 Followers = 2,628,764 Total
• Tennessee Titans: 848,510 Likes + 284,075 Followers = 1,132,585 Total
• Jacksonville Jaguars: 527,374 Likes + 219,132 Followers = 746,506 Total

AFC West

• Denver Broncos: 3,766,702 Likes + 761,633 Followers = 4,528,335 Total
• Oakland Raiders: 2,951,505 Likes + 508,745 Followers = 3,460,250 Total
• San Diego Chargers: 1,667,910 Likes + 429,526 Followers = 2,097,436 Total
• Kansas City Chiefs: 1,357,533 Likes + 444,301 Followers = 1,801,834 Total

NFC East

• Dallas Cowboys: 8,036,818 Likes + 1,338,631 Followers = 9,375,449 Total
• New York Giants: 3,753,126 Likes + 809,325 Followers = 4,562,451 Total
• Philadelphia Eagles: 2,930,084 Likes + 800,584 Followers = 3,730,668 Total
• Washington Redskins: 1,834,001 Likes + 461,556 Followers = 2,295,557 Total

NFC North

• Green Bay Packers: 4,962,155 Likes + 1,011,057 Followers = 5,973,212 Total
• Chicago Bears: 4,032,350 Likes + 801,140 Followers = 4,833,490 Total
• Detroit Lions: 1,830,805 Likes + 581,078 Followers = 2,411,883 Total
• Minnesota Vikings: 1,837,455 Likes + 472,463 Followers = 2,309,918 Total

NFC South

• New Orleans Saints: 4,000,085 Likes + 694,075 Followers = 4,694,160 Total
• Atlanta Falcons: 1,750,858 Likes + 510,049 Followers = 2,260,907 Total
• Carolina Panthers: 1,622,504 Likes + 495,278 Followers = 2,117,782 Total
• Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 867,018 Likes + 289,798 Followers = 1,156,816 Total

NFC West

• San Francisco 49ers: 4,115,825 Likes + 978,343 Followers = 5,094,168 Total
• Seattle Seahawks: 3,615,234 Likes + 982,344 Followers = 4,597,578 Total
• Arizona Cardinals: 1,165,784 Likes + 199,618 Followers = 1,365,402 Total
• St. Louis Rams: 637,160 Likes + 272,787 Followers = 909,947 Total

The data above is broken down by division, as I wanted to make it easy for fans to see exactly how their team ranks among the other teams in the same division. There really aren’t any surprise division winners here.

The 49ers, Saints, Packers, Cowboys, Broncos, Colts, Steelers and Patriots all have huge fan bases.

If I had to pick one surprise division winner in the social media rankings, it’d be the Colts. Houston have a much larger population than the Colts, but many people in Houston are still fans of the Cowboys.

Ten most popular NFL teams on Facebook

Everyone should have guessed the Cowboys would be atop the list – the Cowboys are the most well-known NFL team in the world and many of the Cowboys social media fans are living abroad in countries all over the world.

There really aren’t many surprises. The Giants made the list, as they’re the more popular team in New York among fans outside of the five boroughs. The rest of the teams all have one thing in common – they’ve all won a Super Bowl.

Winning often translates into more fans, especially on social media, where many international fans will follow their team to get the latest news about the team. International NFL fans are much more likely to follow NE or GB than the Jags.

Ten most popular NFL teams on Twitter

The Patriots take the top spot on the Twitter rankings, while the Cowboys take second place. Seattle is 5th on the Twitter rankings, but just 10th on the Facebook rankings – I believe that’s because Seattle is incredibly active on Twitter.

Here are how many Tweets the most popular NFL teams on Twitter have made: Patriots (30,538 Tweets), Cowboys (31,630 Tweets), Packers (27,235 Tweets), Steelers (16,024 Tweets) and Seahawks (47,078 Tweets).

As you can see – the Seahawks are way more active than other teams on Twitter and that has helped them earn close to as many followers as the most popular teams, which all have much bigger international fan bases than Seattle.