2023 was a huge year for FIBA.
FIBA witnessed an unprecedented surge in social media engagement throughout 2023, showcasing the success of its global events and the soaring global interest in basketball content.
According to the leading analytics platform Blinkfire, FIBA secured the top position for engagement and video views among Olympic International Federations across various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Sina Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, Toutiao, and Kuaishou.
The engagement numbers experienced a remarkable 99.4 percent increase from 85 million to 169.6 million, while video views reached a new high of 2.4 billion, marking a 33.5 percent increase from the previous year's 1.82 billion.
The appetite for basketball content was evident in the growing number of followers across FIBA channels, rising by 28 percent to 24.1 million from 18.9 million.
The remarkable growth across all social platforms was driven significantly by the success of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023, which was hosted in Manila, Okinawa, and Jakarta.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 achieved an impressive 4.6 billion video views, 480 million engagements, and 20 billion impressions on both owned and earned channels.
"We are all thrilled by 2023 returning such impressive social media numbers and underlining how more people than ever are following and engaging with the sport," said FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis.
"Attracting even more followers and new fans is vital if we want to meet our aim of continually growing basketball globally,” he added.
Among those with the top social media engagements included Jordan Clarkson’s incredible performance for Gilas Pilipinas vs. China where he scored 24 points in the third quarter alone.
JC's outburst was FIBA's top content for X (formerly Twitter).
Also, among the top-performing posts by FIBA was former NBA superstar Carmelo Anthony posing in front of the Rizal Monument during his visit to the Philippines.
"Manila Melo" was no. 1 on Facebook for FIBA.
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With more exciting FIBA events ahead, the following and engagements of the organization are expected to grow even further.
"Our digital platforms are more than keeping pace with the different ways that people want to consume basketball across multiple channels right around the world. That is also why FIBA is so dedicated to embracing new technology and innovations in our sport," said Zagklis.