MLS (Major League Soccer): Facebook and Twitter Communities (December 2017)

The MLS franchises (including Los Angeles FC, which will participate in Major League Soccer in 2018) accumulated 10.99 million "Likes" on the social network Facebook, on 01/12/2017, an average of 477,807 "Likes" for each of the 23 franchises in the North American professional league. The Facebook fan base of the franchises rose by 130,453 (+1.2%), an increase of 5,672 on average per team, compared to 01/11/2017.

This increase is mainly due to the New York Red Bulls, who gained 84,464 "Likes" (+9.0%) between 01/11 and 01/12/2017. In relative terms, the strongest growth in the number of Facebook "Likes" during the month of November was recorded by Los Angeles FC (+22.4%).

Nevertheless, 16 of the 23 franchises (or 70% of the league) saw their total "Likes" rating decline over a month. Nine clubs on 01/11 and eleven on 01/10/2017 had seen their number of "Likes" decline the previous month. This decline could be explained in particular by a clean-up operated by Facebook, which removes the "Likes" given by "bots" (robots) or by inactive or deactivated accounts.

The Major League Soccer…