NFL fandom in Europe ruled by Patriots, Panthers take United Kingdom
The NFL has played a game in Europe since 2007 but a recent exploration tells us which teams are the most popular across the pond.
In an effort to help promote worldwide fandom, the NFL has played at least one game in Europe, starting out in London, since the 2007 season when the New York Giants took on the Miami Dolphins. At the time, they played just one game across the pond but have since increased that total with four games being played in London in the 2019 season.
The NFL International Series has undoubtedly made strides in attempting to broaden the game worldwide. However, one of the questions that fans in the United States have to wonder is what teams fans in Europe choose to be a fan of. Lucky for those wondering just that, we may have an answer.
At the start of the 100th season of the league, the good people at Custom Ink decided to look into NFL fandom in Europe and see which team was the most popular. To do so, they looked at the past five years worth of data from Google Trends to determine the most popular team in European countries. They then mapped that data which you can see here.
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In terms of overall popularity in Europe as a whole, the New England Patriots are the most popular team in the most individual countries. Tom Brady and co. were recorded as the most popular team in Croatia, Finland, Ireland, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Greece, Latvia and Sweden.
As far as some of the bigger countries in Europe go, though, the Patriots were not the favorite NFL team in many of those. The Seattle Seahawks are the most popular team in Germany, the Oakland Raiders were the most popular in France and Spain and the Los Angeles Rams were the most popular team in Italy.
Perhaps the most interesting result, though, is that the Carolina Panthers are the most popular team in the United Kingdom. What’s fascinating about that is that the Panthers have never played in Europe, though that will change in 2019 when they face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6.
In that same vein, no team has played in London more times than the Jacksonville Jaguars, crossing the pond on six different occasions. And yet, there is no country in which the Jags are the most popular NFL franchise according to the data collected.
For good measure, Custom Ink also looked at the most popular teams in all of Europe using the same Google Trends data. Here is how the top 10 shook out, with a clear favoritism towards some of the NFL’s most successful teams in recent memory:
1. New England Patriots, 2. Los Angeles Rams, 3. New York Giants, 4. Seattle Seahawks, 5. Oakland Raiders, 6. Atlanta Falcons, 7. Green Bay Packers, 8. Denver Broncos, 9. Philadelphia Eagles, 10. Baltimore Ravens
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This is truly a fascinating look at international NFL fandom for a number of reasons and something that you can really get lost looking at. What will be interesting to see is how things continue to evolve with the International Series as they look to expand in Europe beyond just playing in London. Perhaps that will change the popularity of certain teams throughout the country.
But for now, it’s the Patriots that ultimately rule Europe — everybody, even international fans, loves a winner.