New social listening data has revealed that AFL supporters are much more vocal on social media than NRL fans.
Data from Hootsuite has shown many sports fans may have resorted to not only screaming at their televisions during grand final week, but also to switching up their social media habits.
Using its Hootsuite Insights tool, powered by Brandwatch, Hootsuite has developed a snapshot into how AFL and NRL fans interacted on socials before and during their respective grand finals last weekend (with the search criteria: “AFL or #aussierules or aussie rules” and “NRL or #rugbyleague”).
In the month leading up to both grand finals, 186,000 AFL fans took to Twitter to discuss their sport of choice, whereas NRL supporters were dramatically less vocal with only 115,000 fans on the platform.
On the day of each sports’ respective grand final, it was the AFL fans who led with up to 20,000 supporters talking on Twitter, compared to only 13,000 NRL fans.
Women footy fans were less likely to speak up socially, with 27 per cent of AFL tweets coming from women, and 73 per cent men, while NRL fans on Twitter were split 24 per cent women and 76 per cent men.
In terms of hasthtags, #aflgf was the most used on AFL Grand Final Day with at least 5,100 thousand mentions, followed by #afl (3,200 mentions) and #afltigerscats (1,500 mentions).
Meanwhile, #nrl was the most used hashtag on NRL Grand Final Day with 4,100 mentions, followed by #nrlgf (3,200 mentions) and #nrlpanthersstorm (1,500 mentions).
According to the data, emotional sentiment of tweets in the month leading up to both grand finals showed sadness was the most popular emotion shared on Twitter across both sports, followed by joy.
However, AFL fans were more likely to express their anger on Twitter.
The news comes after leading domestic violence advocates braced for a spike in family and domestic violence over the grand final weekend, the Australian Associated Press reported.
In the lead-up to both matches, a coalition of services—No to Violence, White Ribbon Australia, 1800RESPECT, Our Watch and Respect Victoria—launched the ‘Play our Part’ campaign, aimed at raising awareness around how to prevent violence and what supports are available.
