Top 10 Most Followed Sports Mascots
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Mascots in sport have been around for some time now, and their influence on their team's marketing strategy is ever growing given the prominence of Social Media in 2023. This is even reflected in the average annual salary for a professional mascot — which amounts to a reported $60,000 per year!
The first professional sports team to use a mascot was the New York Mets. Their mascot was an oversized fan with a baseball for a head named Mr. Met. Nowadays, most sports teams have an active mascot. However, the methods in which each mascot is marketed towards a younger audience differs with each team — with social media playing a pivotal role in this.
Therefore, the research team at Gambling.com decided to work out the Top 10 most followed sports mascots across every team in the NBA, NFL and MLB — which measures their influence online. They analyzed four different data points to measure this: Facebook following, Instagram following, Twitter following, and TikTok following (according to official mascot accounts as of April 2023).
Top 10 Most Followed Sports Mascots
Our findings discovered Blue, the mascot of NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, came out on top by a distance. With over 8.2 million combined followers, it beat NBA’s Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls in second (6 million followers), and NFL’s Toro of the Houston Texans in third place (1.5 million followers).
Blue had by far the highest number of TikTok followers (8 million), which contributed to it taking the No. 1 spot in our list.
The Chicago Bulls mascot Benny the Bull, at No. 2, had the highest number of Instagram followers with 425,000 - while Toro of the Houston Texans, at No. 3, had the highest number of Facebook followers with 146,000.
In the NBA, Chicago Bulls mascot, Benny the Bull, took the No. 1 spot by a landslide, with a combined 6 million followers.
Utah Jazz mascot Jazz Bear was No. 2 while Clutch the Bear (Houston Rockets), Coyote (San Antonio Spurs) and Hooper (Detroit Pistons) came in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
In the NFL, Indianapolis Colts mascot, Blue, took the No. 1 spot by quite a distance, with a combined 8.2 million followers.
Toro of the Houston Texans was No. 2 while Blitz (Seattle Seahawks), Sir Purr (Carolina Panthers) and Victor (Minnesota Vikings) came in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
In the MLB, Atlanta Braves mascot, Blooper, took the No. 1 spot, with a combined 258,000 followers.
Slugerrr of the Kansas City Royals was No. 2 while Orbit (Houston Astros), Phillie Phanatic (Philadelphia Phillies) and Mr. Met (New York Mets) came in third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Methodology
Four different data points were measured in an index. They were:
- Facebook following
- Instagram following
- TikTok following
- Twitter following
All four index points were added up for a total value (total combined followers). All active mascots across MLB, NBA, and NFL with at least 100 followers on the official mascot Social Media channels were factored into the research. All figures are correct as of 04/25/2023.
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Updated by
Marc Sibbons
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