As the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) ended last weekend, Nigeria and Super Eagles have emerged the most talked about topics on the social media platform, Facebook, while the game lasted.
Data released by Facebook on Thursday showed that Nigeria, Senegal, Algeria, South Africa and Tunisia were the most discussed national teams, in that order.
Also, the countries that discussed AFCON the most were Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Algeria and Senegal in that order. Egypt, the host country, was the 6th most engaged in the conversation.
Facebook said the tournament had people glued to their screens for the game’s duration, as more than 10 million people shared their passion and excitement during the game on its platform.
“People across barriers of nation, language, class and culture took to Facebook to discuss the AFCON 2019.
“Based on data measured between June 21st when AFCON started and July 16th, people on Facebook generated more than 30 million AFCON-related interactions (likes, comments, reactions etc).
“The day that got most people engaged on Facebook so far was 14th of July, the day of the semi finals.
“Riyad Mahrez from Algeria was the most talked about player, followed by Mohamed Salah from Egypt,” it stated.
It further noted that Facebook measured conversation including posts, comments, shares, likes and reactions related to the tournament, as all data were aggregated and de-personalised.
“Conversations were identified based on keywords and combinations of keywords that were associated with discussions around AFCON 2019,” it added.