Young Saudi fans embracing football across multiple platforms, study shows

RIYADH: Ahead of the new Saudi Pro League season, a new report from football media and culture company Footballco has revealed the preferences of young fans across the Kingdom and how they can impact commercial opportunities for brands and rights holders across creator content, gaming, and culture crossovers.

The research shows that for brands and rights holders looking to engage young Saudi football fans, they need to look beyond the live match to creating entertaining cultural-crossover content that leverages player and creator talent.

Central to the report are findings based on a survey of more than 500 fans in Saudi Arabia, aged between 16 and 34.

Mix of highlights and live games

The research found that, on average, fans in Saudi Arabia consume 10 hours of football content each week, but only one-third (3.67 hours) of this is dedicated to watching live matches. This is followed by another third (3.31 hours) spent consuming football content on social media and a final third (3.02 hours) playing football video games.

While live match content does not dominate the football consumption of young fans — aged 16-20 — most prefer to watch a combination of live games and highlights (45 percent) compared to those who watch a full 90 minutes each week (36 percent) and those who only watch highlights (19 percent).

For young fans, the most popular platforms are YouTube (used by 70 percent) and TikTok (53 percent), followed by Instagram and X (both with 50 percent).

Entertainment and creators

While Saudi fans across the board enjoy a mix of entertainment and information in their football content, young fans gravitate toward entertainment first, with 31 percent wanting more entertainment in their content, compared to only