The final day of the 2023/2024 Premier League season saw Manchester City lift the trophy for the fourth time in a row – something never achieved before in English football. However, it’s possible that UK football fans were more interested in watching events at Anfield.
On the same day Pep Guardiola and his side lifted the trophy, Liverpool were saying goodbye to their legendary manager Jurgen Klopp. The Blues took the title after a 3-1 win over West Ham at the Etihad Stadium, a triumph that was the culmination of a remarkable 23 game unbeaten streak that stretches back to the first week of December last year.
Meanwhile, Klopp’s team beat Wolves 2-0 to round off a season that saw them finish third and regain Champions League football, as well as win the Carabao Cup in February. Yet, despite City’s huge achievment of being the first team in English footballing history to lift the top flight trophy four times on the bounce, it’s becoming clear that their appeal across the country is maybe not as it should be for a club in the throes of such unprecedented success.
According to Sky Sports, there were indeed more viewers of City’s game against West Ham than there were for Liverpool‘s dead rubber against Wolves, with Manchester City vs West Ham United averaging 1.27million viewers, and peaking at 1.51million. While the Reds saw their game watched by an average 901k which eventually peaked with 1.07million.
But it’s not really the viewing figures for the games themselves that tell the full story. City’s game, which was broadcast on Sky Sports Main Event did have 54% of viewers while Liverpool, who were on Sky Sports Premier League, had 39%.
However between 6-7pm, when City were lifting the trophy and Liverpool were saying goodbye to Klopp with an Anfield based ceremony, there was a clear shift in viewing figures as more people tuned into Liverpool and Klopp’s celebration than City’s trophy lift. City had 37% of the TV share from 6-6:30pm while Liverpool had 56% – then as the hour went on the Reds’ took a whopping 64% of viewers while City’s dwindled even further to 29%.
The popularity of both club’s is something that’s often fiercly contested online amongst fans of both clubs, especially since the two rivals began competing against each other at the highest level, and these viewing figures will do little to quell that debate. Sticking with City and Liverpool‘s online presence, the club’s social media followings perhaps can shed some light on the viewing split with Liverpool currently on 24.4million followers on X while City have 17.5million.
The picture looks different on Instagram, however, with the Blues taking the lion’s share of followers with 53.6million while Liverpool have 45.5million. However, according to a post on X, with figures from Blinkfire Analytics, there was a 70% higher UK TV average audience and 44% more YouTube views for Klopp’s long goodbye compared to Citys title extravaganza, while the Reds were the most engaged club on social platforms in European football over the weekend with 39.2m while City came in second with 27.1m.
Regardless of viewing figures, the fact remains that City are in the midst of wild and unparalled success that all football fans would want to experience. However it’s possible that the 115 charges that are hanging over the club are seeing some fans to lose interest in City’s dominance, while their rampant winning could also be breeding a form of apathy amongst some football fans.
Any issues aorund City, coupled with the huge fanbase that Liverpool has aquired since their wealth of success in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as Klopp’s popularity, maybe signifies that this was a normal outcome, viewing figures wise, for the two events on Sunday.
Despite Liverpool coming up short against City in two title challenegs in the last few years, and perhaps being the man with the most legitimate grievance against City’s title spree, Jurgen Klopp was actually full of praise for his Spanish counterpart and even revealed his opinion on the charges hanging over City. Klopp said: “Everybody knows about the 115 charges, but I have no clue what that means. I only know the number.
“No matter what has transpired at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola is the best manager in the world – and that is truly significant. If you put any other manager in that club, they don’t win the league four times in a row. That’s down to him and his team.”
As well as the data surrounding Liverpool and Manchester City, Sky also revealed that the cumulative average across the three games on the final day was 2.34million which is actually 43% higher than last season’s tally of 1.64million. The third game on Sky that day, Chelsea v Bournemouth, averaged 175k and peaked at 207k.