It's Super Bowl time and everybody is hyped and feeding the hype of America's biggest sports event. Yes, America's biggest sports event - not the world's.
Outside the US (and Canada) football is almost a non-existent sport. It is true that the Super Bowl receives worldwide coverage but that is mainly due to the half time show and the commercial spots. So I'm sorry to tell all the football fans - in absolute terms of following the Super Bowl will always trail way behind the "real" football - soccer.
Lets look at the facebook following of the 49ners (1.68M) and the Ravens (1.3M). Have you heard of a soccer team from Turkey called Galatasary? They have 7.8M followers. How about Bayern Munich (5.9M) or Arsenal (12M)?
Below is a chart comparing the total following (in millions) of 32 NFL teams in comparison to the 16 teams to reach the European Champions League knock out stage. (The table does not include giants like Chelsea (15M), Liverpool (11M) who didn't go through to the play offs, or any club from South America:
NFL | UEFA Champions League | |||||
1 | Dallas Cowboys | 5.3 | 1 | Barcelona | 39 | |
2 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 4.8 | 2 | Real Madrid | 35 | |
3 | New England Patriots | 3.975 | 3 | Manchster United | 31 | |
4 | Green Bay Packers | 3.4 | 4 | AC Milan | 13 | |
5 | New Orleans Saints | 2.9 | 5 | Arsenal | 12 | |
6 | New York Giants | 2.6 | 6 | Galatasaray | 7.8 | |
7 | Chicago Bears | 2.6 | 7 | Bayern München | 5.9 | |
8 | Philadelphia Eagles | 2 | 8 | Juventus | 4.7 | |
9 | The Oakland Raiders | 1.8 | 9 | Borussia Dortmund | 1.9 | |
10 | San Francisco 49ers | 1.68 | 10 | Paris Saint-Germain | 1.9 | |
11 | Indianapolis Colts | 1.6 | 11 | Porto | 1 | |
12 | New York Jets | 1.495 | 12 | Schalke 04 | 0.64 | |
13 | Denver Broncos | 1.495 | 13 | Malaga | 0.38 | |
14 | Minnesota Vikings | 1.4 | 14 | Valencia | 0.29 | |
15 | Baltimore Ravens | 1.3 | 15 | Celtic | 0.213 | |
16 | Miami Dolphins | 1.3 | 16 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 0.08 | |
17 | San Diego Chargers | 1.2 | ||||
18 | Washington Redskins | 1 | ||||
19 | Atlanta Falcons | 0.98 | ||||
20 | Seattle Seahawks | 0.84 | ||||
21 | Houston Texans | 0.83 | ||||
22 | Detroit Lions | 0.83 | ||||
23 | Kansas City Chiefs | 0.655 | ||||
24 | Cincinnati Bengals | 0.63 | ||||
25 | Cleveland Browns | 0.62 | ||||
26 | Carolina Panthers | 0.559 | ||||
27 | Arizona Cardinals | 0.53 | ||||
28 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 0.53 | ||||
29 | Tennessee Titans | 0.52 | ||||
30 | Buffalo Bills | 0.426 | ||||
31 | St. Louis Rams | 0.4 | ||||
32 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 0.3 | ||||
TOTAL | 50.5 | TOTAL | 154.8 |