Many people associate live streaming with gaming, as gaming broadcasts and esports dominate a significant portion of the industry. However, live streaming is much more diverse and extends far beyond popular titles, featuring various content related to creativity, music, news, politics, education, cooking, and sports.
Football holds a special place in the live streaming industry. For instance, EA Sports FC 24 is very popular on Twitch in early 2024: currently, the game sits among the top-10 Twitch games of the year. Besides video games, charitable football showcase matches featuring popular streamers, bloggers, and other content creators have gained significant popularity recently in live streaming. Notable examples include the Sidemen Charity Match and Battle of the Socials.
Twitch is also a home for media football leagues that involve numerous teams, multiple stages, and matches held at the biggest football arenas the world. For instance, Germany recently launched The Baller League, a league featuring popular German content creators leading the teams. One of the major phenomena of 2023 was the Spanish media football league, Kings League, where former professional footballers and content creators serve as organizers and team leaders. Meanwhile, top Spanish streamers such as ibai, TheGrefg, DjMaRiO help reach hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Furthermore, Twitch became a home for numerous sports bloggers and experts who cover the latest matches and news from various football leagues. Some football stars even conduct live broadcasts themselves, among them are Ronaldo, Neymar, Javier Hernandez, Christian Vieri, and many others.
Recent coaches' resignations: who was mentioned the most?
Twitch boasts a large football community, leading to lively discussions of major newsbreaks, including coaches resignations. For example, the recent departures of José Mourinho from AS Roma, Jürgen Klopp's announcement of an imminent departure from the coaching position at Liverpool, and the anticipated departure of Xavi from a similar role at Barcelona. All of them generated significant resonance among platform viewers.
From January 1 to January 29, Xavi received the highest number of mentions in Twitch chats, with almost 137K messages. Such heightened activity is linked to the large Spanish-speaking Twitch community, where many Spanish streamers and viewers closely follow football, actively engaging in discussions about the Barcelona coach's situation. On January 27, Xavi officially announced that he would leave Barcelona at the end of the season, and on this day, the number of mentions in Twitch chats surged from the usual 3-5K to 14.1K messages.
In January, Twitch chats featured over 34.1K mentions of Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese coach was most actively discussed on January 16, the day he was dismissed from the position of Roma's coach. Approximately 22.4K mentions were devoted to Xabi Alonso, Bayer 04 coach. The Spanish specialist was most frequently discussed in the context of rumors of him moving to Liverpool or Barcelona.
What Twitch channels cover football?
Football coaches were most actively discussed on the channel of Spanish sports journalist Gerard Romero, whose content primarily focuses on news about Barcelona. This channel accounted for 17.6K mentions of various coaches, with approximately 4.4K messages dedicated to Xavi.
Many discussions also took place in the chats of Italian channels teladoiotokyo and TeleRadioStereo, where broadcasts from the respective sports radio were aired. Both channels accumulated over 11K mentions of various coaches, but viewers were most engaged in discussing Mourinho's resignation from Roma.
The Spanish channel ElChiringuitoTV, featuring a football-themed show of the same name, also made it into the top channels for coach discussions. Throughout January, the channel's host and guests discussed Xavi and his statements in the media.
The channel of Argentine streamer LACOBRAAA also entered the ranking with 5K mentions. This streamer closely follows European football, particularly La Liga. A similar number of coach mentions was garnered by the channel AssodiRoma_Official, led by avid fans of the Italian capital club. It's easy to guess that Mourinho was the most discussed figure in their chat.
The channel of Spanish streamer elyihi is known for its cozy atmosphere, and its broadcasts can be likened to a visit to a favorite sports bar. On his streams, elyihi extensively discusses football, player and team statistics, coach comments, interviews with players, and much more. In January, his viewers were most active in talking about Xavi.
Maltese streamer kurt0411 is a big football enthusiast: he frequently engages in playing Football Manager, providing reviews of top matches in European leagues.
Juventibus, the official fan channel of Juventus, made it into the top ten most active channels. Discussions on this channel revolved around the black-and-whites, and the overall situation in Serie A. Expectedly Allegri was the most frequently mentioned football coach in the channel's chat.
The Argentine channel LaAgusneta also produces a substantial amount of football content. Hosted by a young streamer, the channel covers La Liga matches, and sports news, searches for interesting posts on footballers' social media, showcases match highlights, plays FC 24, and more. In January, the channel accumulated nearly 3K messages, including mentions of various football coaches.
When it comes to channels, one of the important metrics is audience engagement. Among channels discussing football coaches, the highest engagement level was found on the taf_life, reaching 67.6%. In January, this streamer hosted numerous broadcasts covering FC 24 and sports discussions, particularly focusing on the situation in the Spanish football league.
The channel with the second-highest audience engagement was pepponetwitch, owned by an Italian streamer. Approximately 59.4% of his viewers regularly sent messages in the chat. Peppone typically discusses Serie A matches during his streams.
