No Surprise: Manchester United Named World's Most Popular Soccer Team

Kantar's new global survey – the largest soccer survey ever conducted – has named Manchester United the world's most popular soccer franchise, featuring 659 million followers worldwide.

The survey gathered 54,000 respondents from 39 countries around the world. Manchester United, which Forbes recently named the most valuable franchise in world sport, was identified as the favorite team of 659 million followers around the world. Kantar also found that soccer remains the world's most popular sport, with 1.6 billion followers globally, reinforcing the results of a recent FIFA survey which produced a similar figure.

"Manchester United is built on a tradition of iconic players, iconic teams and iconic achievements – Beckham, Busby, Benfica '68," stated Richard Arnold, Commercial Director, Manchester United.

"Now our games are broadcast to 1.15 billion households globally, to an audience of over four billion a year. Manchester United resonates with followers all over the world, and it's their passion and support that means year after year we can continue doing what matters most to everyone at the Club: playing attacking football and competing for trophies."

"The growth in our followers since 2007 correlates with what we have seen as we have rolled out our new approach to reaching fans.  From the increase in TV viewership from two to four billion last season, to the demand from millions of media subscribers in 72 countries through our media partnerships, to the way the footage of Wayne's overhead kick echoed around the world on social media, we can see that the connections to the club are growing exponentially."