Stephen Curry and Golden State Warriors lead NBA’s popularity on Chinese social media
- Sixth edition of the annual Red Card Report shows how NBA teams are finding huge audiences on Chinese social media platforms
- Curry is the most popular NBA player on Weibo, while James Harden gains 2.5 million followers since opening Douyin account in January
NBA champions the Golden State Warriors have snagged the additional title of China’s most popular NBA team on social media in 2022, with their star player Stephen Curry named the most popular player on leading platform Weibo.
The Warriors ranked No 1 across all platforms in terms of engagement and posts, with the Los Angeles Lakers coming in a close second and the Brooklyn Nets in third.
The latest edition of the Red Card Report, from mainland media group Mailman, showed that while the Warriors’ championship win in the 2021-22 season was the driving force behind their popularity, it was not the only one.
The report noted the club used tactics including posting about celebrities who were regulars on the platform’s trending topics list to propel their growth on Weibo to 10.7 million followers.
While Curry was the most popular NBA player on Weibo this year, the 76ers’ James Harden and Orlando Magic’s Mo Bamba topped the charts for short video-sharing apps Douyin and Kuaishou respectively.