Americans love their football. Brits love their football, too. Thing is, they love different footballs. Americans love the football that involves a pigskin, gridiron and crushing body blows between 300-pound behemoths. Brits, and pretty much the rest of the world, love the football that's also known as futbol, futebol or -- in the States -- soccer.
But how do the respective footballs match up on social media? A comparison of the NFL and English Premier League yields some interesting results as both seasons begin to get under way. While the NFL's official league pages dominate their EPL counterparts on Facebook and Twitter, EPL clubs' global appeal appears to give them an big advantage when matched up against top NFL franchises.
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On Facebook, the EPL's Manchester United rules all with about 27 million fans, while London clubs Chelsea and Arsenal each top 11 million. The NFL's top team on Facebook, meanwhile? The Dallas Cowboys, with just over 5 million Likes. On Twitter, the EPL's Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all top a million followers, but no NFL teams have yet cracked 500,000.
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While the EPL's major clubs -- which play exhibition matches around the world and compete in the annual international Champions League -- have incredibly strong global brands, social numbers suggest that the NFL has higher popularity as a league. The NFL's official Facebook and Twitter pages total a combined following of about 10 million users, while the equivalent EPL accounts total about 2 million followers.
The following infographic put together by Confused.com gives a visual representation of how the two football leagues compare on social media. Check it out for fuller picture, then let us know in the comments -- why do you think the NFL rates higher as a leagued, but EPL teams kick the most individual butt?
This story originally published on Mashable here.