Springboks ranked among the most popular RWC teams
The Springboks are ranked among the most popular international rugby union sides according to a new study.
When it comes to raw social media numbers the Springboks are among the most popular teams at the Rugby World Cup.
A new study, conducted by New Zealand Online Casino Experts NZCasinoClub, combined social media followings from Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube to reveal which team is the most popular at this year’s Rugby World Cup.
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New Zealand’s All Blacks are the most popular team at this year’s Rugby World Cup according to the data.
With more than 8.4 million (8,482,000) followers across all platforms, the All Blacks have nearly double the online following of the second most popular side, England.
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More than half of their followers also come from Facebook with their official page boasting 4,700,000 followers.
With a combined social media following of more than 4.3million (4,301,000), England are the second most popular team at this year’s Rugby World Cup.
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The Steve Borthwick coached side are also the most popular team on X (formerly known as Twitter), with 1,100,000 of their followers coming from the platform.
WHERE DO THE SPRINGBOKS RANK AMONG RUGBY WORLD CUP TEAMS
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The Springboks ranked in third with a combined social media following of 3,336,000. 1.5million of those followers are from Facebook.
Meanwhile, 2023 host nation, France, ranked fourth with a social media following of 2,852,000.
Les Bleus also have the third highest number of subscribers to their YouTube channel (135,000), behind only New Zealand and England.
Six Nations champions Ireland are the fifth most popular team at this year’s Rugby World Cup with a follower total of 2,326,200. More than 850,000 (851,900) of their followers are on X.
With more than 1.5 million (1,575,800) followers and subscribers across all platforms, Wales ranked sixth. The Red Dragons have 588,000 followers on Facebook making that their strongest support base across social media.
The wobbly old Wallabies are the seventh most popular team out in France. However, the Aussie Rugby do have the fourth-highest number of subscribers on YouTube (104,000).
Scotland are the eighth most popular team at this year’s Rugby World Cup (1,208,600). They are the final nation with over 1 million followers and subscribers across all platforms.
Fiji (899,900) and Argentina (849,600) ranked in ninth and tenth.
On the other side of the scale, Italy (723,400), Japan (478,100), Georgia (428,520), Samoa (289,700), Uruguay (119,060), Portugal (114,353), Chile (113,431), Romania (110,360), Tonga (101,653) and Namibia (36,097) made up the ten least followed sides at the tournament.
THE MOST POPULAR TEAMS AT THIS YEAR’S RUGBY WORLD CUP
| Nation | Instagram followers | X followers | Facebook followers | YouTube subscribers | Total |
| New Zealand | 2,200,000 | 1,000,000 | 4,700,000 | 582,000 | 8,482,000 |
| England | 1,200,000 | 1,100,000 | 1,800,000 | 201,000 | 4,301,000 |
| South Africa | 933,000 | 859,700 | 1,500,000 | 43,900 | 3,336,000 |
| France | 1,000,000 | 833,200 | 884,000 | 135,000 | 2,852,200 |
| Ireland | 756,000 | 851,900 | 656,000 | 62,300 | 2,326,200 |
| Wales | 422,000 | 534,200 | 588,000 | 31,600 | 1,575,800 |
| Australia | 453,000 | 258,800 | 743,000 | 104,000 | 1,558,800 |
| Scotland | 362,000 | 430,400 | 362,000 | 54,200 | 1,208,600 |
| Fiji | 272,000 | 136,900 | 491,000 | 0 | 899,900 |
| Argentina | 283,000 | 330,300 | 215,000 | 21,300 | 849,600 |
| Italy | 231,000 | 166,900 | 300,000 | 25,500 | 723,400 |
| Japan | 132,000 | 66,900 | 195,000 | 84,200 | 478,100 |
| Georgia | 67,300 | 39,500 | 313,000 | 8,720 | 428,520 |
| Samoa | 82,100 | 31,100 | 175,000 | 1,500 | 289,700 |
| Uruguay | 40,000 | 52,800 | 22,000 | 4,260 | 119,060 |
| Portugal | 60,200 | 8,153 | 46,000 | 0 | 114,353 |
| Chile | 50,600 | 22,200 | 40,000 | 631 | 113,431 |
| Romania | 21,100 | 13,400 | 70,000 | 5,860 | 110,360 |
| Tonga | 34,800 | 2,853 | 64,000 | 0 | 101,653 |
| Namibia | 9,968 | 2,129 | 24,000 | 0 | 36,097 |