Follower numbers on the Instagram pages of the Spanish and Argentine national teams, as well as their players, climbed sharply throughout the tournament.
Digital gains beyond the pitch at the World Cup 2026
Argentina’s and Spain’s strong runs at the World Cup 2026 brought benefits that went beyond results on the field-particularly across social networks and digital platforms, which are becoming increasingly central to football’s business. The official federation accounts for both countries, along with several players called up, recorded notable rises in Instagram followers, with the albiceleste and Argentine footballers showing the strongest overall growth.
Federation Instagram accounts: AFA compared with Spain
Before the competition began, according to research by the website “Football Benchmark”, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) profile had 14.8 million followers. That figure rose to 18 million by yesterday, representing growth of almost 17%. It is more than double the increase seen on the Spanish Men’s National Football Team account, which went from 7.5 to 8.5 million followers during the World Cup’s six-week run.
Players on Instagram: the biggest individual rises
The most striking gains appeared at individual level, both in percentage terms and in absolute numbers. Messi, already with more than 500 million followers, added a further six million-yet, interestingly, he was the player who grew the least in percentage terms (1.2%) compared with the other footballers.
By percentage increase, the largest leap belonged to Spain’s Cucurella, whose follower count rose by 36% and now stands at 3.4 million. Next come Argentina’s Lisandro Martínez (17.4), Leandro Paredes (11.5) and Emiliano Martínez (10.6). As for Lamine Yamal, he now totals 46.7 million followers, with 3.4 added during the event. Spain’s Pedri moved from 22.5 to 23 million followers, while Argentina’s Julián Álvarez now has 21 million, 1.7 more than before the tournament.
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