Red Sox and Yankees Rivalry: Which Team Wins the Internet Popularity Battle?
Written by Mike Swersky (contact - e-mail) -- August 15th, 2007 | Recommend ThisOne of the most intense rivalries in sports is between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, and this rivalry goes beyond the field. We all know the Yankees have more World Series championships than the Red Sox, but who is winning the online battle between the two powerhouses? A team’s popularity is crucial; the more people that watch the games and show interest in the team, the more revenue a franchise can generate. To compare the popularity between the two ball clubs, let’s look at the traffic to each team’s official website starting with April 2004.
Key Findings
- If you add the monthly unique visitors since April 2004, Redsox.com narrowly edges out Yankees.com - 25,842,280 to 25,747,282.
- In October 2004, Redsox.com hosted 1.4 million people as the team won its first championship in 86 years.
- Despite having a population that is 1/14th of New York City, Boston fan support is on par with their arch rival’s.
State by State Analysis
With Boston’s population so much smaller and monthly unique visitor counts so high, my first thoughts were that the Red Sox must have a wider national fan base. So I decided to look at this baseball season’s traffic to Redsox.com and Yankees.com state by state.
Yankees.com had more total monthly unique visitors in 39 states this baseball season. The historical data from the previous section shows that playoff time traffic to these two sites can change dramatically, so who knows what this map will look at the end of October. As a Red Sox fan, I hope to see a lot more red.
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August 15th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Great work! Very interesting and informative! GO SOXXX!!
August 15th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
You might also want to take into consideration the hits on:
http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=nyy
and
http://mlb.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=bos
This is how people will get to the team pages from mlb.com and any other mlb run page.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
The Sox have the overall lead because of the big win in ‘04. They seem to be getting crushed on the map this year, but hopefully we see another Sox spike in the fall like we saw a few years ago.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
The Red Sox only have ten out of fifty states, but every time you see them play an away game you can hear the “Let’s Go Red Sox” chant, so I think they are chipping away at the overwhelming following the Yankees have.
August 15th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Fan base around the country definitely contributes dollars to the cause, but isn’t there revenue-sharing in baseball? So all MLB merchandise is split up evenly between the thirty teams. The money is in the TV deals and the ticket sales - so the Yankees are way ahead in both.
August 16th, 2007 at 1:21 am
From what percieve of Red Sox fans, its seems that they need to find a better hobby
October 1st, 2007 at 8:36 pm
My hero Yogie once said”It ain’t over tillit’s over.” I just want to remind thoes Red Sox fans out there, they still have to come thru the Bronx.
December 13th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
Go Sox Great posting!! ONe Question who does everyone like better the red soxs or the Yankees? Question for everyone or anyone answer
March 18th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Your study does not take into account the other red sox related sites that most sox fans visit much more often than redsox.com. If you add all the fan and other media sites for both teams I think the red sox would come out on top.
http://www.fenwaywest.com