As we await the frenzied end to this year’s March Madness, which saw more than few nail-biters and all the drama of heartbreak and jubilation, many fans are taking to social media to follow and support their favorite—or new favorite—teams.
Engagements by the millions
Across all teams in the Big Dance, total cross-platform engagements were more than 10.6 million, which falls in line with our initial data that this was the most-streamed March Madness Round 1 ever, so it follows that more people would be engaging on social.
Full-court press on social
Between March 18 and March 30, Illinois gained a whopping 20,470 new followers on their social platforms. The long shot sweetheart of the Sweet 16 No. 15-seeded Oral Roberts was second with an increase of 19,298 followers. Their rival in this round Arkansas, though Arkansas came out on top on the court, trailed Oral Roberts in follower gains by 1,650.
Facebook views skyrocket too
Facebook was a big driver in viewership as total views across all the teams measured were 4.4 million.
Slam dunk on engagements for Arkansas
Arkansas is the only team to break one million cross-platform engagements in the tournament so far.
The Sweet 16 was very sweet for Oral Roberts
Even though they lost their round of 16 bid by just two points to fellow social media titans Arkansas, Oral Roberts saw a 4332% increase in engagements per post versus their regular season.
Speaking of the Sweet 16, engagements, views, and follows were also all up significantly over their regular season social showing for the Sweet 16 teams.
Here are the total cross-platform engagement rankings of teams who made it to the Sweet 16 round.