Manchester City FC become first English club to reach a million subscribers on YouTube
Manchester City are continuing their successful run both on and off the pitch as they become the first English football club to hit the 1 million subscribers mark on YouTube.
City player Yaya Touré featured in the club's video to mark the milestone. Over the past two years alone, City have doubled their subscriber numbers; adding almost 250,000 subscribers last year.
Some of the most popular videos include the team doing the Harlem Shake which clocked up 9.2m views and Pep's taxi ride with fan Braydon Bent which garnered 2.2m views.
Michael Russell, head of City TV and social media said: “When we launched City’s YouTube channel in 2011, we wanted to create a channel that produced original and innovative content. Through its unrivalled access to players over the years, CityTV has created outstanding content that has appealed not only to supporters of our Club, but also engaged fans from across the wider football community, both here in Manchester and around the world.”
“We’re fiercely passionate about not treating YouTube as just a video hosting platform but a way we can listen to our fans on a daily basis. Reaching one million YouTube subscribers is a huge milestone for us and we will continue to work hard to produce videos that fans can be proud of.”
Tomos Grace, YouTube's head of sport, EMEA said: Manchester City run an exemplary YouTube channel which combines the creativity of De Bruyne, the execution of Aguero and the intelligence of Guardiola.”
“They understand what works on YouTube and have used the platform brilliantly to build a young, engaged and global fan base."
Earlier this year, the club launched a digital platform which utilises user data to offer personalised experiences for fans while facilitating fan engagement.