Portugal overtakes Brazil to become the National Team with the most followers on Instagram

With 1.9 million new followers on its Instagram profile in 2024, the official account of the Portugal national team reached 18.43 million followers, surpassing the official profile of the Brazilian national football team to become the most followed among all football teams on the planet.

Interestingly, the number of followers of the Portuguese national team on Instagram is 8.2 million more than the estimated population of the country, which is 10.2 million inhabitants.

By the way, the growth of 1.9 million followers on the Portuguese account not only guaranteed it the position of the team with the most followers among all, but also the team with the greatest growth in 2024, if we consider the total numbers.

The performance is closely monitored by the official profile of the English team. The Three Lions, as they are known, accumulated 1.89 million by September 10 and are fighting to be the team with the greatest growth.

In terms of proportional growth, Portugal grew by 12%. The team with the highest proportional growth in relation to its base was Switzerland, which grew by 44% in 2024, or 115 thousand followers.

Instagram is what Portuguese people like and use

According to data from the report produced by We Are Social and Meltwater, Instagram is the most popular social network and the second most used social network in Portugal among people aged between 16 and 64. 33.1% of people say that Instagram is the social network they like the most. In terms of usage, Instagram is second only to WhatsApp. Around 85.2% of Portuguese people say they use Instagram, spending an average of more than 17 hours per month on the tool.

Digital “Doping”: Cristiano Ronaldo

The performance of the Portuguese national team in 2024 is directly linked to the presence of striker Cristiano Ronaldo. A phenomenon both on and off the pitch, CR7 is present in nine of the top 10 most-interacted posts on the official account, either as a protagonist or as an extra.

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Uma publicação compartilhada por Portugal (@portugal)

The only post among the 10+ in which Cristiano Ronaldo is not present is when striker Diogo Jota, Liverpool (ENG) striker, received the award for best player on the field in a match in which Portugal eliminated Slovenia on penalties.

Global Engagement Leader

Having an asset like Cristiano Ronaldo meant that Portugal’s profile not only saw the greatest growth in followers, but was also the team with the most engagement in 2024.

In total, the Portuguese profile accumulated more than 158 million interactions in just over a thousand posts. By comparison, France, who played at home in Paris 2024 and finished as silver medalists, accumulated 119.4 million interactions.

Among the top 10 posts with the most engagements among all teams, Portugal holds 50% of them. All of them, as already mentioned, have Cristiano Ronaldo in the picture.

The main post of 2024 accumulated 8.6 million engagements and a success rate of 49% with the followers of the profile.

In it, Cristiano Ronaldo behaves as expected of an idol and a public figure of his relevance. Not only does he walk onto the field with a little disabled fan, but he also helps her get into her wheelchair and holds her hand. Despite her physical and neurological limitations, the little fan’s joy is remarkable.

With a strategy that takes into account the best digital practices, the national team’s profile collaborates with the striker’s profile and achieves incredible numbers.

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Uma publicação compartilhada por Portugal (@portugal)

To give you an idea, the post above – which reached 8.6 million engagements – had more than three times as many engagements as the second post, which featured the French team and an irreverent behind-the-scenes video. The post featuring Konate’s unusual dance reached 2.8 million engagements.