An earlier survey by German company Sport+Markt put United's fanbase at 354 million in 2011, ahead of Chelsea (135 million), with Arsenal (113 million), Liverpool (71 million) and Manchester City (18 million).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32615111

Never thought we were that big abroad ? a couple of years old but certainly puts the " you will never be as big as us " Scouse mantra to shame ......

http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/511644/Chelsea-are-a-more-universally-loved-club-Blues-chief-lauds-400million-fan-base

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/20974695

I'm surprised at those figures myself, Liverpool and Arsenal fans outnumber Chels where I live 4:1.

I seem to recall reading we had the fifth biggest following in the world, after Man United, Real, Barca and I assume Bayern.

I always treat these kind of figures with a pinch of salt. A lot of the numbers given differ wildly as well. Is our fanbase 400 million or just a measly 135 million? And how do they know? Do they do a head count? Add up replica shirt sales? According to one of those articles, about 1 in 10 of all the people on the planet supports Man U! Nope, not far fetched at all.

this is not the first estimate of global fans bases that shows we are massive in a great many countries - and no wonder, Chelsea and United are the most successful clubs in the last decade it's inevitable that new fans to premier league football will be attracted to us. Great news for club revenues... 

This stacks up about right. The key factor in us having a bigger fan base than a team like Liverpool, comes down to the Internet and the premier league as a globally marketed product.

When Liverpool had their success in the 70's and 80's in the old Division 1, there was no Internet, no satellite TV, no streaming of games all over the world. For us we had all of that, and success breeds fanbase.

This is not to say we haven't marketed ourselves well over the premier league years, because we have.

I fully expect the Man City fanbase to continue to grow as they have success, and Liverpools to stay static or even decrease if they continue to play Thursday night football. :-)