City slaying competition off the pitch

BLUES SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS ARE TAKING OFF

- SIMON BAJKOWSKI

CITY had a lot of catching up to do when they set their eyes on conquering world football after the 2008 takeover.

A decade of English dominance has also brought their first Champions League triumph and success on the pitch has brought more awareness off it.

Gone are the days of 'Manchester' being a shorthand for United in many corners of the globe and if Liverpool players or fans want to tell themselves that their success means more the reality is that the Blues are leaping ahead in the race for worldwide audience.

A study at the end of last season showed that both City and Liverpool had 131 million followers across the four main social media platforms of Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok; that was the seventh highest in the world and behind Chelsea (134m) and United (206m).

City have since surged past not just Liverpool but also Chelsea in the last few months to sit on 142.7m.

What is notable about City's surge is that the bigger leaps are coming on the newer platforms that are more popular with young people; their Instagram has shot up from 40m to 51m and TikTok has leapt up from 18m to 23m to sit just behind United.