With Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the crackdown on fake/spam accounts is coming. Many celebrities and brand accounts will be impacted by this. NFL teams are not immune either. And the Carolina Panthers rank pretty high when it comes to the number of fake followers for the team’s Twitter account. But even more surprising to me was just how many followers the team has compared to the other NFL franchises. In fact, the Carolina Panthers have the 5th highest number of Twitter followers across the NFL. I’d expect some of the more heritage (or what I personally call “bandwagon”) teams to far exceed us. But the Panthers’ follower count is at approximately 3.1 million behind only the Patriots, Cowboys, Eagles, and Steelers. All but the Eagles would fit in my bandwagon category. So it’s unsurprising that those teams all have a high number and percentage of fake followers.
How was this discovered? Well To figure this out, our friends at Gambling.com ran each team through SparkToro’s fake follower audit, creating a ranking of the worst hit accounts. The New England Patriots are the ones who are set to be the most affected by Musk’s crackdown on fake accounts, with 2.1 million of their 4.7 million followers estimated to be fake. That’s the highest number of followers and fake followers in the NFL.
Below you’ll find the 10 teams which includes the Carolina Panthers, with the highest number of fake followers. Prepare to see a steep drop-off when this purge occurs.
1. New England Patriots
Number of Followers: 4,700,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 44.7%
Number of Fake Followers: 2,098950
2. Dallas Cowboys
Number of Followers: 4,300,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 47.4%
Number of Fake Followers: 2,048,852
3. Philadelphia Eagles
Number of Followers: 3,700,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 44.5%
Number of Fake Followers: 1,632,100
4. Pittsburgh Steelers
Number of Followers: 3,700,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 40.6%
Number of Fake Followers: 1,517,706
5. Carolina Panthers
Number of Followers: 3,100,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 41.9%
Number of Fake Followers: 1,292,349
6. Green Bay Packers
Number of Followers: 2,500,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 43.9%
Number of Fake Followers: 1,127,345
7. Seattle Seahawks
Number of Followers: 2,600,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 42.6%
Number of Fake Followers: 1,093,553
8. San Francisco 49ers
Number of Followers: 2,400,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 44.3%
Fake Follower Number: 1,046,503
9. Kansas City Chiefs
Number of Followers: 2,190,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 45.2%
Number of Fake Followers: 990,232
10. Atlanta Falcons
Number of Followers: 2,400,000
Percentage of Fake Followers: 39.4%
Number of Fake Followers: 961,092
