New Zealand Sport Census: League popularity on Twitter: Wellington vs. Auckland
The Twitter accounts from my November 18 list are the basis for this post. The league labels attached to the accounts from that date are from my November 24 post. As described in earlier posts, a list of user inputted locations was created. These were connected to City, State, Country information. This data was also matched against a generic list of cities to help make it more complete. The total location matched file has some 63,000 variations. Account followers by leagues were then combined. The duplicate followers were removed. The total followers by league were added together for each Australian and New Zealand city that appeared on the followers list.
Before reading further if you’re a fan of the NPC, please look at the Twitter list. I’d love to see more NPC and regional club sides on my Twitter list for New Zealand rugby union and league. Either they don’t exist or people near me aren’t tweeting with links to them. Two of the major ANZ Championship Twitter accounts weren’t added to my list until after this data was compiled. Therefor, that competition is likely to be under represented. The lack of accounts for various New Zealand sport probably means that the patterns are a bit out of sync with the actual situation in New Zealand’s offline fan base.
I’ve listed Auckland first because it falls that way alphabetically. I’ve also included Christchurch because I had the data and it is one of the three major metro areas in New Zealand. Each city appears to have its own flavor of sport loyalties based on who is followed. Fascinating stuff. If there are any Kiwis who could explain to me why each city likely follows the way it does, that would be awesome. I’m guessing the A-League is so high in Wellington because the national team for soccer comes out of there and the Wellington Phoenix play there.
| Auckland | Total Followers |
| Rugby World Cup | 1037 |
| NRL | 742 |
| Super League | 653 |
| General New Zealand sport | 218 |
| Cricket Victoria | 187 |
| AFL | 150 |
| Cricket New South Wales | 129 |
| Cricket New Zealand | 101 |
| NBL | 85 |
| A-League | 83 |
| New Zealand Roller Derby | 75 |
| Cricket Australia | 66 |
| Surfing New Zealand | 46 |
| Association of Surfing Professionals | 43 |
| Cycling Australia | 41 |
| Swimming Australia | 41 |
| Cricket Western Australia | 38 |
| NPC | 38 |
| General Australian sport | 37 |
| Basketball Australia | 21 |
| Yachting Australia | 18 |
| World Cup | 16 |
| Triathlon Australia | 16 |
| ANZ Championship | 16 |
| International Olympic Committee | 14 |
| V8 Supercars | 14 |
| Tennis Australia | 13 |
| Netball Australia | 8 |
| New Zealand Rugby Union | 8 |
| Rugby League-State of Origin | 7 |
| Sydney League | 6 |
| Athletics Australia | 5 |
| Baseball New Zealand | 5 |
| Australia Roller Derby | 5 |
| Cricket Queensland | 4 |
| Australian Olympic Committee | 4 |
| Golf Australia | 4 |
| NSW Premier League | 3 |
| Hockey Australia | 3 |
| Netball Victoria | 3 |
| A-League-W-League | 3 |
| AIHL | 2 |
| Australian Rugby Union | 2 |
| Cycling South Australia | 2 |
| Rugby League World Cup | 1 |
| NSWRL | 1 |
| Volleyball Australia | 1 |
| Rowing Australia | 1 |
| AIS | 1 |
| Cricket Tasmania | 1 |
| Runaway Rugby League | 1 |
| Netball New South Wales | 1 |
| Christchurch | Total Followers |
| Rugby World Cup | 209 |
| Super League | 169 |
| NRL | 108 |
| General New Zealand sport | 45 |
| Cricket New Zealand | 37 |
| Cricket Victoria | 34 |
| Cricket New South Wales | 28 |
| A-League | 24 |
| Cycling Australia | 19 |
| AFL | 18 |
| Cricket Australia | 14 |
| NPC | 11 |
| General Australian sport | 9 |
| NBL | 9 |
| Surfing New Zealand | 9 |
| Swimming Australia | 7 |
| International Olympic Committee | 6 |
| V8 Supercars | 6 |
| Cricket Western Australia | 6 |
| Association of Surfing Professionals | 5 |
| Triathlon Australia | 5 |
| Athletics Australia | 3 |
| Australia Roller Derby | 3 |
| Yachting Australia | 3 |
| ANZ Championship | 3 |
| Basketball Australia | 2 |
| Tennis Australia | 2 |
| New Zealand Roller Derby | 2 |
| NSW Premier League | 1 |
| Netball Australia | 1 |
| Australian Canoeing | 1 |
| Australian Baseball | 1 |
| WNBL | 1 |
| World Cup | 1 |
| AIS | 1 |
| Golf Australia | 1 |
| New Zealand Rugby Union | 1 |
| Australia Paralympics | 1 |
| Baseball New Zealand | 1 |
| Runaway Rugby League | 1 |
| Wellington | Total Followers |
| Super League | 646 |
| Rugby World Cup | 480 |
| A-League | 297 |
| NRL | 220 |
| NPC | 214 |
| New Zealand Roller Derby | 207 |
| General New Zealand sport | 160 |
| Cricket Victoria | 93 |
| AFL | 73 |
| Cricket New South Wales | 62 |
| Cricket New Zealand | 60 |
| Cycling Australia | 25 |
| Cricket Australia | 24 |
| NBL | 20 |
| Surfing New Zealand | 20 |
| Swimming Australia | 19 |
| General Australian sport | 17 |
| New Zealand Rugby Union | 16 |
| Association of Surfing Professionals | 13 |
| V8 Supercars | 12 |
| ANZ Championship | 11 |
| NSW Premier League | 9 |
| Netball Australia | 9 |
| Cricket Western Australia | 9 |
| Australia Roller Derby | 9 |
| A-League-W-League | 9 |
| World Cup | 8 |
| Basketball Australia | 7 |
| International Olympic Committee | 6 |
| Triathlon Australia | 6 |
| Yachting Australia | 6 |
| Tennis Australia | 5 |
| Sydney League | 4 |
| Athletics Australia | 4 |
| Australian Rugby Union | 3 |
| Australian Olympic Committee | 3 |
| Rugby League-State of Origin | 2 |
| Hockey Australia | 2 |
| Cycling ACT | 2 |
| Netball Victoria | 2 |
| Cycling South Australia | 2 |
| Cricket Queensland | 1 |
| W-League | 1 |
| Australian WaterPolo | 1 |
| Country Rugby League | 1 |
| WNBL | 1 |
| Sydney Union | 1 |
| Rowing Australia | 1 |
| Football Federation Australia | 1 |
| Golf Australia | 1 |
| SFL | 1 |
| Baseball New Zealand | 1 |
