Sports and pop culture fans may have spotted an extraordinary video doing the rounds on Twitter (and beyond) last week. The clip, uploaded to Twitter by UCLA Gymnastics spotlights 21-year-old gymnast Katelyn Ohashi after her “perfect 10” floor routine at the Collegiate Challenge in LA. The gravity-defying floor routine is the most-viewed sports video uploaded to Twitter so far in 2019 with 41.8M views as of January 19! If you haven’t seen the clip, make sure to check it out below, but first, let’s take a look at the impact of Katelyn’s show-stopping exhibition:
- UCLA Gymnastics gained an extra 26.1K Twitter followers since the tweet went live on 13th January.
- The tweet accounted for 41.8M of the channel’s 42.7M views in the last 10 days.
- Katelyn herself gained 119K new Twitter followers since 13th of January.
- The tweet not only attracted 41.8M video views on Twitter, but it also generated over 718K likes and 173K retweets.
https://twitter.com/uclagymnastics/status/1084325320935657472
Twitter Now Has Sports Videos at Scale
The “perfect 10” routine was also uploaded to Facebook by UCLA Gymnastics where it generated 26.5M views, and UCLA Athletics posted the video to YouTube where it has also generated 26.6M views to date. These three videos are now the most-viewed sports content across social video platforms to date in 2019.
But it’s on Twitter that the clip truly went viral, making headlines around the world, and proving that the platform is now a serious place for views at scale. The top 10 sports videos uploaded to Twitter in 2019 have already generated 77M views — that’s compared to 87.5M from the top 10 uploaded to Facebook and 96.9M from the top 10 posted to YouTube. Those are serious numbers and Twitter is proving itself to be a major social distribution channel around sports content. The appetite from fans for clips relating to everything from playbacks, to behind-the-scenes footage is a massive opportunity for teams, leagues, media and entertainment publishers, and major influencers to build an avid community around their channels.
In any case, we know how many views the top ten most-watched clips on each platform have pulled in. Now, let’s take a look at the top five of these videos on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube since January 19 of this year to get an overview of which teams and publishers are attracting the most views:
Twitter Top Ten: 77M Sports Video Views in 2019
ESPN channels have claimed three of the top five most-viewed sports videos on Twitter this year to date, with a mix of promotion for a UFC fight, and some behind-the-scenes footage of the Georgia Bulldogs, and Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott. Note the use of emojis for two of the most-viewed Twitter videos in this genre.
- A ???? isn’t enough for this floor routine – UCLA Gymnastics (41.8M)
- ❤️ this Tweet for a reminder to stream the next UFC Fight Night LIVE – ESPN (6.7M)
- Zeke securing the bag – ESPN (4.2M)
- .@Melvingordon25’s uber driver had no idea ???? Los Angeles Chargers (4.2M)
- LOOK OUT, UGA! – SportsCenter (4.1M)
YouTube Top Ten: 96.9M Sports Video Views in 2019
Over on YouTube, WWE scored three of the five most-viewed sports videos including the full-length footage of two matches, which generated a combined 18.7M YouTube views for the sports league. In the last 90 days, WWE has attracted 2.1B views and 22.2M engagements on YouTube and picked up an extra 3.7M subscribers.
- Katelyn Ohashi – 10.0 Floor – UCLA Athletics (26.6M)
- Model Rocket Battle 2 – Dude Perfect (22.2M)
- FULL MATCH – Royal Rumble Match: Royal Rumble 2018 – WWE (11.8M)
- FULL MATCH – Lesnar vs. Kane vs. Strowman (6.9M)
- Alexa Bliss is rudely interrupted in her dressing room – WWE (6.3M)
Facebook Top Ten: 87.5M Sports Video Views in 2019
The most-viewed sports videos uploaded to Facebook since the beginning of the year have been (apart from #1) published by sports media brands. Barstool Sports claimed two of the five spots.
- Katelyn Ohashi – 10.0 Floor – UCLA Gymnastics (26.5M)
- Best Football Trolls – Ft. Ronaldo, Neymar Jr and Ball Boys – Football For Life (11.2M)
- You could say Chicago isn’t too happy with Cody Parkey right now – Barstool Sports (9M)
- KARMA in Football – Savage REVENGE – Football For Life (7.7M)
- The best ring boy of all time – Barstool Sports (7.3M)