How far behind other sports is golf on social media?
By: Derek Clements | Edited: Tue 24 Feb 2026
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If I told you that Tiger Woods had around 9.8m followers on social media the chances are that you would be pretty impressed. But would you be surprised to learn that tennis player Novak Djokovic has around 25m? And both are utterly dwarfed by footballer Cristiano Ronaldo who has clocked up a scarcely-believable ONE BILLION followers.
It goes to show that golf still has a long way to go when it comes to raising its worldwide profile.
It takes more than money to raise the profile of a sport - and the scale of the problem facing golf is highlighted in a new study by Sportingmedia, a site dedicated to sports news and in-depth analyses.
Sportingmpedia’s latest study ranks the most followed sports leagues and organisations worldwide by their combined social media audience across Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok and it makes for comparatively grim reading for golf.
By adding up followers across the four major platforms, the report shows which competitions and sports attract the biggest global digital fanbases.
And the bad news for the PGA Tour is that it languishes in 13th place, just behind Wimbledon and narrowly ahead of NASCAR, with a total of 17m followers on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X.
Football dominates the list with the Champions League attracting a staggering 321.6m followers, closely followed by the Premier League with 218.4m and the NBA on 214m.
A total of seven organisations top the 100m mark, with the FIFA World Cup, UFC, NFL and cricket’s ICC completing the list.
It should surprise nobody that football and American football have such a large following. Some might raise an eyebrow to see cricket ranked so highly but it is a sport that has a huge global reach.
The Champions League tops the ranking with 321.6 million followers, making it the most powerful sports competition on social media. Its audience is built on huge reach across every platform, led by 121 million followers on Instagram and 94 million on Facebook. TikTok adds 54.1 million, while X contributes 52.5 million, giving the Champions League the strongest all-round digital footprint in the dataset.
The Premier League ranks first among domestic competitions, with an impressive 218.4 million followers. Instagram (79.9 million) and Facebook (69.0 million) remain the league’s two biggest platforms, while its 44.9 million on X keeps it among the strongest sports brands on that network. TikTok accounts for 24.6 million, completing a four-platform profile that now places the Premier League narrowly ahead of the NBA.
The NBA follows in third place on 214 million followers, remaining the biggest non-football organisation in the top tier.
Its base is driven most strongly by Instagram, where it records 90.2 million followers, supported by 52 million on Facebook and 46 million on X. TikTok contributes 25.8 million, underlining how the league continues to translate star power into sustained global attention.
The PGA Tour ranks 13th with six million Facebook followers, 5.8 million on Instagram, three million on X and just 2.2 million on TikTok.
Huge attempts have been made to raise golf’s social media profile. You will know that the Player Impact Program has paid huge bonuses to the player who has made the biggest impression on social media and it is little surprise that it has been dominated by Tiger Woods, an individual who continues to move the needle in a way that no other golfer has been able to do - despite the fact that he has hardly lifted a club in anger during the past three years.
The indoor golf league fronted by Woods and Rory McIlroy was designed to make golf more attractive to a new, social media-savvy audience but it has patently failed to capture the public’s imagination. I know this is not scientific in any way shape or form but none of the men and women I play golf with were even aware that it had staged any events in 2026.
You can create tournaments with massive prize funds but there is no guarantee that it will capture the public’s imagination. There are those who might aim to celebrate the fact that the PGA Tour has 17 million followers but bear in mind that the actual number will be far less than that as many individuals will follow it on several platforms. I know that I do.
Everybody involved with our wonderful sport wants to grow the game - this simply goes to prove that there remains a long, long way to go.
About the author
Derek Clements is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.
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