Liverpool v Manchester United: The Premier League's online sensation
Friday 17 April 2020 11:39, UK
As Liverpool and Manchester United prepare to face off live on Sky Sports, we take a look at their huge online popularity across the world.
The Monday Night Football derby has already got the internet buzzing, with the fixture being searched eight times more than any other upcoming Premier League fixture on Google.
Liverpool have the edge over their Manchester rivals when it comes to searches, though, with 55 per cent of the share.
It will be Jose Mourinho's first clash with Liverpool as Manchester United manager, but Reds boss Jurgen Klopp is also proving more popular than his counterpart online with 53 per cent.
However, when it comes to followers on social media, it's the Manchester club which comes out on top.
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Manchester United are the third-most popular team in the world across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with 94.2m followers, behind El Clasico rivals Barcelona (153.8m) and Real Madrid (152.1m). Liverpool are on 38.8m followers, according to sports index platform Brandtix.
Previous derbies between England's two most successful clubs have generated record peaks for social media conversations.
United's 2-1 win at Anfield in March 2015 was the most talked-about game on Twitter during the entire 2014/15 campaign, with Juan Mata's acrobatic winner the season's top moment and Steven Gerrard's instant red card not far behind.
Meanwhile, Manchester United's 3-1 win over Liverpool at Old Trafford in September last year generated 1.5m tweets, with Christian Benteke's sensational bicycle kick hitting 35,000 tweets per minute and Anthony Martial's debut goal for United triggering a 30,700 tweets-per-minute peak.
However, when it comes to popular tweets, they don't come much bigger than Manchester United's announcement of Paul Pogba's return to Old Trafford after a world record £89m transfer from Juventus this summer. Their post generated 90,000 retweets and 100,000 likes.
The players
Pogba is a popular player on social platforms, but team-mate mate Wayne Rooney is the most-followed Premier League player on Twitter - and one of the top 10 most-followed individuals in the UK, alongside the likes of Harry Styles and Emma Watson - with 13.9m followers.
However, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the top player from either club in terms of total followers across social media, with 50.7m. Daniel Sturridge is Liverpool's most popular player with 7.9m.
With questions over his form and future making headlines, it's no surprise Rooney also makes the combined Manchester United-Liverpool XI for Twitter mentions so far this season.
Liverpool will be looking to end a dismal run of results against their rivals when they clash live on Sky Sports 1 HD from 7pm on Monday, having lost seven of their last nine league encounters, and the fixture is set to create another social storm.
