The 2014 FIFA World Cup is fast approaching and, like it or not, your Facebook News Feed is about to be filled with posts by soccer fanatics. According to data recently released by Facebook, 500 million of Facebook’s 1.2 billion users are soccer fans. Of those, some 48.9 million fans live in the U.S, ranking the U.S. second only to Brazil for the largest number of soccer fans in any country. And these fans post often.
Compared to the average Facebook user in the U.S, soccer fans post 1.7 times more photos and videos, make 1.7 times more comments and overall post 1.8 times more often. During a recent soccer match in March, fans in the U.S. published 16.8 million likes, comments and shares related to the game. US soccer fans also tend to be highly active during games; during a match this March, for example, US soccer fans published a combined 16.8 million posts, likes, comments and shares related to the game.
If you’re not a huge soccer fan, prepare to be inundated by soccer posts on Facebook when the World Cup starts on June 12. To deal, it might help if you at least try to join in the fun and pick a team to root for. U-S-A, U-S-A, anyone?
