If you think you know where @PremierLeague fans are located, you may be surprised by our new Premier League Twitter fan map, which shows a detailed global breakdown of the followers of all 20 clubs.
Explore this new interactive map, which was built by our data visualisation scientist Krist Wongsuphasawat, to discover which teams dominate each country, and where loyalties lie at a district-level in the UK.
The map was created by looking at the official Twitter accounts for each team, using their followers as an indicator of allegiance (as opposed to, say, instances in which people mention a team while watching an interesting matchup or talking about a team’s rival).
Click image to explore interactive map The primary view shows at a glance which teams dominate each country around the world, but there are interesting ways within this to explore the map in greater depth: • Find your club: Discover how your club fares in each country. Use the ‘Zoom to’ function in the right-hand corner of the map to instantly explore your club’s presence in any given country. • Compare clubs: Pick any two teams and compare where they have their biggest density of followers. Compare local rivals such as @Arsenal and @ChelseaFC who face each other in a London derby this Sunday. • Most popular clubs: Use the dropdown menu to determine who the most popular clubs are in an area of your choice.
Player power: In many countries, Premier League allegiance appears to be related to, at least in part, the presence of local players.
Off the pitch: What other factors, beyond the more obvious ones such as player affiliation and geographical impact, could influence a team’s fan base? Here are a few other interesting connections: • @Arsenal break @ChelseaFC’s dominance in the Middle East by edging ahead in United Arab Emirates, which is home to their stadium and kit sponsors, Emirates Airline (@emirates).
As the Premier League heads into the business end of the season, fans will continue to come to Twitter to support their club over the line. Each view of this interactive map can be Tweeted or embedded by clicking either the ‘Tweet this view’ or ‘Embed this view’ buttons at the top of the screen.
For more information on where the fans are located, please see the full blog post here: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/the-premier-league-follower-map