Verschiedenes

The Fan Zhendong effect not only attracted record-breaking crowds to the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL) arenas last season. On Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, interest in Germany’s top flight surged to previously unseen levels during the Chinese Olympic champion’s debut season with Champions League winners 1. FC Saarbrücken-TT. And with Fan Zhendong’s move to record champions Borussia Düsseldorf, the current season is already showing signs of reaching new heights.

In the key category of overall reach, the TTBL figures for the relevant platforms soared, according to a detailed data analysis. A total reach of 480.7 million across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube underlined the increased appeal of Germany’s top flight following Fan Zhendong’s Bundesliga engagement, as did a record 6.8 million interactions in the form of likes, comments and shares.

At the same time, one particular factor had a significant impact on these figures: a reel featuring a spectacular rally from a TTBL match between Grünwettersbach’s Tobias Hippler and Eduard Ionescu of Saarbrücken alone generated more than 110 million views on Instagram and Facebook.

The TTBL website also recorded exceptionally high figures compared with the previous season. With 7.1 million views, the TTBL website recorded around 300,000 more views last season than in the previous campaign. The growing relevance of the Bundesliga’s digital presence becomes even more apparent when looking at the number of active users: 532,390 users interacted with the website during the past season, an increase of more than one third compared with 2024/25 (398,962 active users).

The upward trend is continuing: During the first three months of the current season, 143,024 active users were recorded, representing a further increase of more than 7.5 percent compared with the record-breaking figures from the previous season.

The immense interest in this season’s Bundesliga is also reflected in a total reach of 40.1 million during the first three months since the official start of the season on July 1. By comparison, the reach had reached “only” 31.9 million at the same point last year, meaning that the current figure is already 25.7 percent higher. The previous year’s figure had already smashed the mark of just 5.2 million recorded at the end of September 2024.

The TTBL is also attracting significant interest on Chinese social media platforms. Between July 1 and September 30, 2026, a total of 185 posts were published on Weibo, WeChat, Douyin and RedNote, generating a reach of 33.7 million and 155,900 interactions. The four platforms had a combined following of 430,000.

Across all platforms, the TTBL therefore achieved a total reach of 73.8 million during the first three months of the new 2026/27 season – a new record.

The positive development is also reflected in the number of interactions: 395,900 engagements during the first quarter of the previous season already represented more than a threefold increase compared with the corresponding figure in 2024. Following Fan Zhendong’s move to Düsseldorf, the established platforms recorded 825,000 interactions during the first twelve weeks of the current season alone – more than twice as many as during the same period last year. In addition, the Chinese platforms Weibo, WeChat, Douyin and RedNote generated 155,900 engagements. The figures underline the TTBL’s growing international reach and the increasing attention the German top flight is attracting well beyond Germany’s borders.

Florian Manzke
Header image: Leapmotor Pokal Grand Opening 2026 (Photo: BeLaSportfoto)