Every month, we look at the top publishers on Facebook around the US and the UK. Though these spots offer valuable insight, we want to expand our reach even further in an effort to analyze trending topics in other cultural hubs. To do this, we’re going global and evaluating rankings around the world.
After recently focusing on Mexico, we’re taking on another Spanish-speaking country, Spain. As of 2023, Spain has 19.35M regular Facebook users.
Let’s take a look at what one of Europe’s hottest countries has been interested in during these last few months.
The top publishers on Facebook in 2023 in Spain
In true Spanish fashion, the theme of fútbol, or soccer as many of us know it in the US, has been dominating the charts. Marca, Spain’s national daily sport paper, has firmly held the number one spot with 12.4M interactions, over 3M more than the second-place contender. Mundo Deportivo, a Barcelona-based sports publication, has taken the third spot with 8.2M interactions, while Diario AS, which is a sport specific sister publication to second-placed El Pais, is holding onto seventh with 7M.
Speaking of which, El Pais followed behind Marca with 9M interactions. Their stories tackle global and national news, as well as health, technology, economics, and opinion pieces.
Marca’s top stories so far included a UFC fighter enjoying a “holiday” (81.3k), FC Barcelona’s brutal loss to rivals Real Madrid (70.4k), and, again, an offside controversy between the latter sides (56.4k). In contrast, second place El Pais strayed from sports, covering a variety of topics for their leading stories. Popular articles included that of a lying minister from Mexico (65.4k), a scientific discovery for China (61.7k), and Shakira’s shiny new award (61.5k).
Although El Pais had higher engagement numbers through their top 10 stories, Marca’s sheer article count and dedicated fan base prevailed, pushing them to the top spot.
The top pages on Facebook in 2023 in Spain
We weren’t exaggerating when we said that soccer has been dominant on the charts this year. Out of the top ten Facebook pages in 2023 so far, eight revolve around the sport. Only third place Entérate De Algo (27.5M) and ninth place Calavera No Llora (18.8M) were non-sport publications, focusing on comedic memes.
There’s an obvious theme as to who Spain’s favorite soccer teams are. Bitter rivals Real Madrid and FC Barcelona topped the charts; the capital city club’s page with 105M interactions and the Catalan giant’s page with 84M. One of Madrid’s top posts highlighted former star Cristiano Ronaldo’s visit (784k), while Barcelona hit 811k engagements on their post about beating Madrid 3-1 this past January.
Beating out top publisher Marca for a spot in the top ten were the pages of El Chiringuito TV, a La Liga discussion based program, popular publisher Mundo Deportivo, and La Liga’s official page themself. Although each page has upwards of 14M engagements and counting, their totals look feeble in comparison to the powerhouses that are the country’s main beloved clubs.
At the end of the day, no matter how similar international dialogue can be, there is always a localized interest that can overpower even the loudest conversations. This is why it’s important for brands to understand regional passions so that they can best adjust their media when it comes time to target new areas.
Interested in other publisher rankings? Check out our most recent blog on Mexico.
