World Athletics gains top spot in social media engagement, suggests new report

World Athletics has secured the No. 1 spot in the 9th edition of the SportOnSocial International Federations 2025 Report by Redtorch. The report ranks 43 summer and winter Olympic international federations by measuring their social media performance in 2024. World Athletics’ result was driven by strong social media engagement across all platforms, including being the best-performing international federation on Instagram and Facebook for the first time. 

The International Canoe Federation was the biggest climber, rising 12 places to 5th. This progress was largely attributed to its use of YouTube, where it rose 33 places to become the top-performing international federation on the platform. Strong growth on Facebook and Instagram also bolstered its rise.

Overall international federation audiences increased by 11 percent in 2024, marking in fact the slowest growth rate since Tokyo 2020 (heavily impacted by COVID-19).

Among the other highlights from the SportOnSocial International Federations 2025 Report, YouTube was the only platform to record a year-over-year increase in engagement (+92 percent), driven by Shorts. Meanwhile, international federations collectively saw a 39 percent drop in engagement on TikTok, despite a 23 percent rise in TikTok followers, with athlete and fan-generated content dominating over federation-led content. World Table Tennis leads in China, collecting a combined 43 million engagements across all platforms and leading on Weibo, Douyin and WeChat.