Cricket on top again in BCW's International Sports Federations Social Media RankingJanuary 31, 2024

BCW Sports, the sports practice of leading global communications agency BCW, today released its 2023 International Sports Federations Social Media Ranking.

Once again, the International Cricket Council (ICC) led the way on social media, registering a total of 106’519’541 followers across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter), representing an impressive 16% increase in followers from last year. FIFA and the International Basketball Association (FIBA) came in at second and third respectively. There were no new joiners to the 2023 top10, yet the International Teqball Federation (FITEQ) moved up the ranking by three spots. In the combined ranking, FIBA has the biggest growth (41%) compared to 2022.

For the Leaders on Social rankings, we see Umar Kremlev (Boxing) top the chart on Instagram, Gianni Infantino (Football) on LinkedIn and Arkady Dvorkovich (Chess) on X.

Notable key findings this year include:

Established platforms continue to lead: Facebook, launched 20 years ago in 2004, is the oldest of all the platforms included in the analysis, yet still comes in as the platform that has the most followers across all IFs, with a combined followership of over 100 million. New to the social media landscape in 2023, and therefore also to the Ranking, was Threads. Only 35 IFs have created accounts on Threads so far, and although they exist, we see that many (or most) of them are lying dormant.

Impact of inclusion on Olympic programme not evident, yet: Despite the inclusion of new sports in recent editions of the Olympic Games, such as Skateboarding, Sport Climbing and Surfing, these new sports haven’t had a big enough boost to their social media following to be added to the top 10 of the ranking. As we enter another Olympic year, it will be interesting to follow the impact Paris 2024 has on new sports.

Lars Haue-Pedersen, BCW Sports Managing Director, said: “In this, our eight edition of the IF Social Media Ranking, we see how IFs are continuing to adapt to the evolving landscape of social media. With new platforms being introduced and new functions within existing platforms, the IFs have clearly increased their ability to adapt to these changes within their communications strategies. As sports federations start to see themselves more as global brands the opportunities to connect with fans continue to grow and it’s truly exciting to see how different sports are positioning themselves on social.”

Download the 2023 International Sports Federations Social Media Ranking

About the Study

First published in 2016, the BCW International Sports Federations Social Media Ranking aims to capture the social media footprint of international sports federations (IFs) and provide insightful takeaways on the trends of social media use. This year's ranking includes international sports federations, both Olympic (summer and winter) and non-Olympic. The ranking is based on the organisation / corporate accounts of these IFs and their leadership (President/Secretary Generals) and does not include the various event specific social media accounts. The full methodology can be found within the published report.