IPL 2023: Most popular teams on social media

There are many cricket leagues around the world which have been in the limelight both on and off the field from time to time. Consequently, along with teams, cricket aficionados too got interested in knowing about their favourite players and their day-to-day activities from a fan's perspective. Since the advent of the world's richest cricket league, The Indian Premier League (IPL), which started in 2008.

This interest only increased with time. And the major form of staying updated with all the happenings around the popular cricket players has been in the form of social media platforms with the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter which rule the majority of the market under this domain. As a result, all the cricket franchises are now competing not just in the field but also away from it. Moreover, social media platforms have helped immensely in connecting with fans more efficiently with better reach.

Notably, the IPL has also bridged the gap between the audience and cricket through various fan engagement platforms and social media and the IPL have always been complementary to each other.

The official social media handles of the teams are keenly followed by the fans and it also acts as a medium to interact with them. This connection made the fans closer to their teams and hence the growth was exponential. Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are now the most commonly used applications and franchises use these for better reach with their fans.

(Note: Followers updated as on March 30, 2023)

Having said that let's have a look at which IPL team is at the helm of its social media game in terms of the total number of followers on various platforms-

Most Popular IPL Teams on Social Media:

10. Lucknow Super Giants

Certainly, the Lucknow Super Giants team is a new one in the Indian Premier League but the owners aren’t. The RPSG groups who owned the Rising Pune Super Giants team (now defunct) in 2016-17 have now again made a re-entry by buying the rights for the Lucknow franchise for a whopping INR 7,090 crore.

The Lucknow team are coached by the Zimbabwean great, Andy Flower along with the team mentor, Gautam Gambhir. They drafted the star Indian batter KL Rahul, Marcus Stoinis, and the young leggie Ravi Bishnoi. The squad was built around KL Rahul and definitely seems to be a team to watch out for in the upcoming season as well.

Talking about their social media sector, the franchise has revamped its old RPS accounts and has re-branded the same. On Facebook, 356K people follow LSG, and on Instagram and Twitter, they have 1.6M and 726K followers respectively. Currently, they are in the last spot with 2.6M followers across social media platforms.

9. Gujarat Titans

The current IPL champions are the Gujarat Titans, who impressed everyone with their stellar performances through the 2022 edition. Being the newest team in the mega carnival, their winning ways also got rubbed on its social media game. The upcoming seasons of the Indian Premier League will be more competitive with the addition of two new teams. CVC Capital bagged the rights to own the Ahmedabad-based franchise for a whopping INR 5,625 crore.

The franchise had the option of signing three players before the auction and the Titans drafted Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill and Rashid Khan into their squad. The explosive all-rounder Hardik will captain the side and will be coached by the former Indian bowler Ashish Nehra. The team had a good auction and picked the players according to their strategies.

Now, when we look at the virtual following of the franchise, the GT handles have soared in the last one year with 633K Facebook followers, 2M Instagram followers, and 426.6K followers on Twitter. Commendably, the franchise has done well to attract 2.9M followers overall.

8. Rajasthan Royals

Rajasthan Royals team stamped their authority in the Indian Premier League in the very first season by lifting the maiden IPL trophy. This was the first and last IPL final appearance of the team. RR has only qualified for the playoffs in just three occurrences after 2008.

Unfortunately, the franchise had to witness a suspension in the 2016-17 seasons of the IPL due to violations of BCCI norms. The team made a comeback in 2018 and qualified for the playoffs under Ajinkya Rahane. Albeit, they failed to move beyond the playoff stage. Currently, the RR team is captained by Sanju Samson and the setup looks really strong this year with a few notable additions in the squad with the likes of the English great Joe Root along with West Indian veteran, Jason Holder.

Their fan base on social media has not grown as rapidly as they would have liked but surely the numbers tell it has been a steady growth so far. On Facebook, RR have racked up 5.02M fans followed by Instagram with 2.2M and Twitter with 1.9M followers. The total count of the social media fanbase is around 9 million and would definitely see an upscale in the count if the team performs well as the fresh team looks promising.

7. Sunrisers Hyderabad

The Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise stepped into the Indian Premier League as a replacement for the terminated Deccan Chargers team in 2013. Most of their players were retained from the Deccan Chargers and the first captaincy was given to Kumar Sangakkara.

Then players like Cameron White, Shikhar Dhawan, and Darren Sammy, captained the side until David Warner took over the captaincy for the first time in 2015. In 2016, Warner led the team to their maiden IPL trophy and he groomed the side as one of the most consistent teams.

David Warner was the face of the Hyderabad franchise and was celebrated by the fans, but due to some issues, he parted ways with the franchise and the team was built under Kane Williamson for the future. However, after some not doing well in the past few years, this year the team got revamped from the scratch. South Africa's Aiden Markram has been appointed as the new skipper courtesy of his winning campaign in the SA20 league. Speaking of the team’s social media fan base, the number of people following them on Facebook is 6.2M, on Instagram is 3M, and on Twitter it is 3.1M. The total fan base of the franchise is 12.3M.

6. Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals, which was formerly known as Delhi Daredevils, kickstarted their journey in 2008, under Virender Sehwag. The team hasn’t won a title yet and it had been the most inconsistent side in the years 2013-18. But the fortunes of the side were overturned since 2019.

In 2019, the franchise rebranded itself as Delhi Capitals and revamped its kits and setup. The franchise trusted their youngsters and groomed players like Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant. The young and energetic team has been qualifying for the playoffs since then and also they participated in their first finals in the year 2020 and ended as the runners-up.

Rishabh Pant, became the new icon of DC, with a bright future ahead. However, due to an unfortunate road accident, Pant got ruled out of the IPL. Consequently, David Warner has been handed the duty to lead Delhi's campaign this year. The squad looks best on paper and is definitely a team of interest. The present number of followers on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are 8.2M, 3.4M, 2.5M respectively, and will experience a hike in the near future as the new team looks star-studded with players such as David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Rovman Powell to name a few. Their overall tally of followers happens to be 14.1M.

5. Punjab Kings

Kings XI Punjab, which was established in the year 2008, was renamed Punjab Kings in 2021. This team is one of the underperformers in the Indian Premier League as it has only managed to qualify twice (2008 and 2014) in its 14 appearances. The franchise has tried various captains and coaches but they haven’t crossed the line as yet.

Hence, it was rebranded and was expected to do well under KL Rahul, but it failed to qualify. Though the team hasn’t performed well since the beginning, it has had some big names like Yuvraj Singh, Adam Gilchrist, Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell, etc. Hence, the fan following of the team has been incredible.

The PBKS team has picked match winners such as Shikhar Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Kagiso Rabada, etc. in this mega-auction and will expect to lift the trophy this season. Talking about their fan base, they have a total of 13.8M followers of which 8.6M are from Facebook, 2.8M from Instagram and 2.9M from Twitter. When combined, their total following amounts to 14.3M.

4. Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders are the third-most successful team in the Indian Premier League as it has lifted the trophy twice in the years 2012 and 2014. The team was most successful under Gautam Gambhir and since his transfer, the team was captained by Dinesh Karthik and then by the World Cup-winning captain, Eoin Morgan.

In 2021, KKR had a very bad start to the season in the first phase of IPL. In the second phase at UAE, the team performed contrarily well and qualified for their third finals. But unfortunately, the team lost the finals. For the upcoming seasons, KKR retained Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer and Sunil Narine.

Then the management picked the Indian sensation, Shreyas Iyer, in the auction and named him as the captain. The franchise is predominantly owned by Shah Rukh khan and he himself is the brand of the team. Therefore, it is no wonder that their social media following has been consistent. On Facebook, the official handle has 16.9M fans, which is the highest amongst the other teams, and on Instagram and Twitter, the team has 3.5M and 5.1M followers, respectively. All in all, KKR have 25.6M followers.

3. Royal Challengers Bangalore

When we talk about T20 cricket, it is all about the entertainment and thrill it provides for the fans, and RCB has been doing nothing short of it. The highest score of an IPL inning (263) was recorded by the RCB in 2013, and it is still unreachable. Their iconic players Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers gave their fullest to hold the trophy in their hands but have failed to do so.

Despite the team's title drought, the fan following of the team has not decreased and the die-hard fans are longing to see the trophy in their favourite players’ hands. It is evident that RCB has one of its most loyal followers. Now, Virat Kohli has left the captaincy and AB de Villiers has retired from cricket and this saddened the RCB fans all over.

But still, the fans look hopeful to win the title under the leadership of Faf Du Plessis along with the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik etc. The franchise has always established a bold brand of cricket and will look to please its fans this year. Currently, the official handles of the team have 10M Facebook followers, 1.2M Instagram followers, and 6.5M Twitter followers. In totality, RCB boasts 26.5 M followers.

2. Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians are the most successful team in the IPL with five titles in 14 years. The franchise is owned by arguably one of the richest men in India, Mukesh Ambani. The team started off their journey in 2008, with the little master Sachin Tendulkar captaining the side. The team couldn’t lift the trophy in the first five years despite having one of the strongest sides.

The fate of the team transformed when Rohit Sharma took over the captaincy in 2013. MI first won the trophy in 2013 and they went on to win in the alternate years (2015, 2017, 2019) and recently they added their fifth trophy to their cabinet in 2020. MI have always believed in building a strong Indian core and this strategy has helped them over the years.

The success of the team along with the big names such as Tendulkar, Rohit, Bumrah, and Pollard has earned them an incredible fan following over the years. The Facebook account currently holds 13.8M., while on Instagram and Twitter, there are 11.4M and 8M MI Paltans, respectively. In total there are 33.1M followers.

1. Chennai Super Kings

The MS Dhoni-led franchise, Chennai Super Kings are at the helm of the mass fan following. CSK is the most consistent team in IPL and it has four trophies in its cabinet. As how the management is loyal to their players, the fans are devoted to their team.

The one man who has carried the team forward to glory over the years on his shoulders is none other than legendary former Indian skipper Dhoni. Such has been his dedication towards the franchise that he is almost an adopted son of Chennai. The ‘Yellove’ fans have been attached to the team through thick and thin.

Interestingly enough, even when the CSK franchise was banned for two years, the team did not lose any followers and it only gained much attention and love from the fans. It won’t be enough to laud the rapport between the management, players, and fans. Hence, they have the strongest and highest fan following among all the teams. In numbers, the team has 13.1M followers on Facebook, 11.2M on Instagram and 9.4M on Twitter, and the cumulative follower accounts to 33.6M.