In ongoing news, Elon Musk is setting his sights on clearing fake/spam accounts off Twitter, but how could this affect the Twitter following of teams in the NFL?

Photo: Complex

By running a fake follower audit, Gambling.com reveals which NFL team and NFL QB have the highest number of fake followers in the NFL and are likely to lose out the most.

The New England Patriots stand to lose the most followers in the league with an estimated 2.1 million fake followers, and the Broncos’ Russell Wilson would be the worst affected QB with an estimated 1.9 million fake followers.


In April, Elon Musk stated he would “die trying” in the fight to eradicate Twitter from spam accounts.

With Musk’s recent acquisition of Twitter, there has been continuing news surrounding the plans, but how could this affect the teams and players in the NFL’s Twitter followings?


Using SparkToro’s fake follower audit, the guys at Gambling.com have ranked which NFL Teams and QBs could be the worst hit.

It’s no surprise that they have a massive social media following, considering their major success over the past two decades, but 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.

The Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles could also be massively affected by Musk’s plans, with the two franchises each having an estimated 2.0 million and 1.6 million fake followers on Twitter, respectively.


The table below ranks all NFL teams in order of the number of followers potentially lost:

TeamNumber of Followers (Twitter)Percentage of Fake FollowersFake Follower Number
New England Patriots4,700,00044.7%2,098,950
Dallas Cowboys4,300,00047.4%2,048,852
Philadelphia Eagles3,700,00044.5%1,632,100
Pittsburgh Steelers3,700,00040.6%1,517,706
Carolina Panthers3,100,00041.9%1,292,349
Green Bay Packers2,500,00043.9%1,127,345
Seattle Seahawks2,600,00042.6%1,093,553
San Francisco 49ers2,400,00044.3%1,046,503
Kansas City Chiefs2,190,00045.2%990,232
Atlanta Falcons2,400,00039.4%961,092
Houston Texans1,950,00047.3%924,244
Chicago Bears2,000,00041.6%840,211
New York Giants2,000,00040.6%800,342
New Orleans Saints1,700,00044.5%771,382
Baltimore Ravens1,800,00042.0%762,434
Las Vegas Raiders1,900,00037.7%719,712
Cleveland Browns1,570,00043.6%684,360
Minnesota Vikings1,500,00041.0%613,936
Detroit Lions1,500,00040.9%608,835
Buffalo Bills1,450,00040.1%581,786
Washington Commanders1,400,00041.0%572,245
Cincinnati Bengals1,320,00041.3%545,073
Indianapolis Colts1,210,00043.9%533,374
New York Jets1,300,00038.9%513,454
Tampa Bay Buccaneers1,200,00040.8%509,728
Los Angeles Rams1,200,00040.8%492,452
Arizona Cardinals1,100,00042.2%475,583
Tennessee Titans1,000,00044.8%455,020
Miami Dolphins1,200,00036.4%436,595
Los Angeles Chargers1,060,00037.6%399,832
Jacksonville Jaguars784,00041.9%328,799
Denver Broncos2,270,00039.8%1,101

With the teams in the NFL standing to lose out on millions of followers due to Musk’s purge, Gambling.com decided to also analyze the followers of each starting QB in the NFL to reveal how they would be affected.

Coming in the top is the Denver Broncos’ star QB Russell Wilson with 1.9m of his followers estimated to be fake, closely followed by Aaron Rodgers of the Packers and Tom Brady of the Bucs, with an estimated 1.8 million and 1.1 million of their Twitter followers estimated to be fake, respectively.


The table below shows the top 10 NFL QBs in order of highest number of fake followers:

QuarterbackNumber of Followers% of Fake FollowersFake Followers
Russell Wilson5,600,00032.9%1,859,327
Aaron Rodgers4,600,00038.4%1,762,873
Tom Brady2,900,00037.0%1,087,880
Patrick Mahomes2,300,00041.9%952,765
Dak Prescott1,490,00042.3%629,381
Lamar Jackson1,100,00028.9%312,690
Joe Burrow890,00032.3%288,418
Derek Carr490,00038.9%191,583
Josh Allen450,00033.8%151,874
Andy Dalton227,00061.7%140,280

Methodology

To collect the data, Gambling.com ran the Twitter accounts of every team and QB in the NFL through SparkToro’s fake follower audit tool. This took a sample of 2,000 random followers and ran diagnostics found to strongly correlate with these types of fake followers (bots, spam accounts, inactive users, propaganda, or other non-engaged/non-real users).

Data accurate as of 30th November 2022.


Featured Image: Complex
Comments are closed.

Check Also

Hockey’s Holy Grail: The Story of the Stanley Cup

The Stanley Cup, a gleaming beacon of triumph in the realm of ice hockey, stands as a test…