The FA Cup - How the game played out on social

19/06/2017

To anyone who isn't a football fan, the 2016 FA Cup Final was held at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, 21st May with 11-time winners Manchester United taking on Crystal Palace in a repeat of the 1990 final. The game attracted close to 90,000 fans who packed into the famous old venue with millions more watching at home and in bars all over the world. For us it was a great opportunity to see how the afternoon played out across the social networks.

As one of the most talked about sporting events of the year, the topics of discussion were wide and varied. Our focus was on which terms trended socially and to get an idea of the amount of content that was shared throughout the day and where the peaks of engagement were.

We used our Social TV platform STORY to gather content related to the game by using hashtags such as #facup #facupfinal #mufc #cpfc , #wembley, #weareunited and #crystalpalace on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We also set up location-based searches to gather content that was published within a 1km radius of Wembley stadium.

The game was certainly a builder, slow to start but some interesting refereeing decisions made by Mark Clattenberg definitely polarised the social audience decisions as did key player injuries.

Clattenburg was a bit too quick to blow his whistle on that occasion #FACupFinal

- Tom Scholes (@TomScholes316) May 21, 2016

Fergie slipping Clattenburg a cheeky tenner before the #FACupFinal https://t.co/YUAYYEzMTA

- BreatheSport (@BreatheSport) May 21, 2016

Then, during the second half, Crystal Palace were first to score much to the delight of manager Alan Pardew, with his now-famous dance.

pic.twitter.com/twdG6kluD0

- Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) May 21, 2016

We delved a little deeper to see what impact this funny moment had on social media. To do this we used STORY's Wordcloud feature which lets us see what topics are trending by monitoring the popularity of certain terms, in this case #pardew and #pardew dance.

Fans shared photos and videos of the dance which many social users referred to as the dad dance'.

Then the inevitable happened, the memes began. The terms mysterious' and xm20x' you see in the wordcloud above refer to this great clip of Alan dancing with Peter Andre to Mysterious Girl', created by Vine user xm20x.

Anyway, back to the game

Pardew's joy was short-lived as just a few minutes later United levelled the score before the game went into 30 mins of extra time.

STORY's Analytics shows that there were peaks in engagement on Twitter around key moments during the game.

(Note the graphs show CET time which is one hour ahead of GMT).

It's interesting to note that both teams had similar peaks of activity during the game but then Crystal Palace (#cpfc) discussion dies off while Manchester United (#mufc) chatter reaches an all-time high after the game as fans around the world celebrate the win.

We can also see that Twitter was the platform of choice with more content being posted using the major hashtags on Twitter compared to Facebook and Instagram. However, when we look at the geo-located content posted at Wembley stadium, there are far more Instagram posts being made compared to Twitter posts. This is probably because the geolocation tag is more commonly used on Instagram. Fans were obviously eager to share photos and videos they took at the game.

Fa Cup Final. Cmmon United. @manchesterunited #facup #final #trophy #happy #awesome #ggmu #football #manufanpics #mufans #manutd #reddevils #redarmy #mufanpics #lvg #may #2016 #awesomeview #insta #instagram #wow #happy #mutd

A photo posted by Chetan Sharma (@chetan_85) on May 21, 2016 at 9:21am PDT

The match ran from 17:35 GMT until 20:08 (including extra time) when Manchester United won the trophy. In the graph below we have grouped several social sources into one category. (Eg Wembley' contains #wembley posts from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram). We can see what topics peaked at certain times on social media between 17:00-21:00.

FA Cup Final' peaks at 17:32 right before kick-off and the Manchester United related terms (#mufc and #weareunited) peak at 20:08, when the whistle blows and they're declared the winners with a final score of 2-1.

The total amount of social posts for our chosen terms reached over half a million between 17:00 - 21:00 GMT, showing just how engaged viewers were on social media during the game.

If you'd like to find out more about how to use social content for digital, programming or advertising to increase viewer engagement, get in touch with us.

LINK:	http://www.never.no/news/the-fa-cup-how-the-game-played-out-on-social...
	See more stories from neverno

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

18/03/2026

Net Insight Names Larissa GrnerMeeus CPO

Newly named chief product officer (CPO), Larissa G rner Meeus will return to Net Insight on May 4. Larissa G rner Meeus will become CPO of Net Insight on May 4...

18/03/2026

SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026: Select Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

SVG Europe's The Football Summit 2026 explored how the sports broadcasting i...

18/03/2026

SVG's SportsTech@NABShow Blog Goes Live as Countdown to Vegas Heats Up

The 2026 NAB Show kicks off one month from today and SVG is once again set to cover the show from every angle. SVG's SportsTech@NAB Show Blog is now live - ...

18/03/2026

The Premiere of Dead Lover Showcases Grave Robbing and Sex With a Giant Finger

(L-R) The cast and crew of Dead Lover at The Ray Theater for its premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo by Robin Marshall/Shutterstock for Sundan...

18/03/2026

Music Row Piano from Wiltone Productions

Yamaha C7 captured in Nashville Wiltone Productions have announced the release of Music Row Piano, a deeply sampled Yamaha C7 piano library that's been ...

18/03/2026

Techivation introduce T-Warmer Mk2

Bass-enhancement plug-in upgraded Along with a steady stream of new releases, Techivation have recently been revisiting some of the older plug-ins in their ...

18/03/2026

Tonal Balance Control 3 from iZotope

Mix-reference plug-in overhauled iZotope's powerful mix-referencing plug-in has just reached its third major version, and now boasts a new capture proce...

18/03/2026

Toontrack Transistor Organ EKX

Latest EZKeys 2 expansion arrives Toontrack's staggering collection of EZKeys 2 expansions has grown once again, and the latest instalment delivers a on...

18/03/2026

Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture

Jess Ho explores the politics of food in new SBS Audio podcast For The Culture 18 March, 2026 Media releases New SBS Audio podcast For The Culture, hosted ...

18/03/2026

Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz at NAB 2026

Future-ready broadcasts with ATSC 3.0 and enhanced services from Rohde & Schwarz...

18/03/2026

LCTWS 2026

London Calling - When The Industry Convened to Help Streaming Find its MoJo In this blog, Laura Rognoni reflects on key discussions from the Connected TV World...

18/03/2026

SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations

SMPTE Unveils 2026 NAB Show Educational Presentations Brie Clayton March 18, 2026 0 Comments SMPTE , the home of media professionals, technologists, a...

18/03/2026

Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K

Auditel Ad Campaign Shot on Blackmagic PYXIS 12K Brie Clayton March 18, 2026 0 Comments LED wall virtual production blends 12K open gate acquisition w...

18/03/2026