FC Barcelona became the most followed sports club on YouTube last January, overtaking clubs such as Real Madrid and Liverpool. This summer, due in large part to the Asian tour, Barça managed to overtake the only sports organisations that were ahead of them: FIFA and the NBA. The club led by Joan Laporta took first place thanks to the 23.8 million subscriptions to its account.
The club’s commitments in Asia during pre-season increased the number of users on YouTube, but not without controversy. Initially, Barça offered its pre-season matches from Barça One, free of charge if users were registered.
Two days before the match against Vissel Kobe, the club released a pre-season ‘pack’ on its YouTube account for 9.90 euros. The broadcast of the match had complications for season ticket holders, and at half-time FC Barcelona decided that the best option was to offer all the matches for free on the same platform. This led to a massive increase in subscriptions.
Extraordinary numbers at the Gamper
The broadcast of Barcelona against Como in the Joan Gamper Trophy was a success in terms of audience for the club. Barcelona broadcast the match on its YouTube channel and recorded spectacular figures. The match received a total of 18.7 million views, with an average of more than 1.8 million concurrent viewers
The club continued to show that its tour of Asia was not only based on friendly matches. In China, the match was offered by Douyin, a platform specific to the Chinese market. The match exceeded one million views.
Read the full article here
