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CHARTS: How popular did the Abbotsford Canucks become after one year?

Google Trends results compare the team year over year with other professional sports teams
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How popular did the Abbotsford Canucks get after one year? The Abbotsford News has compared the team through Google Trends to a number of other teams.

Google Trends data over the past year has revealed that the Abbotsford Canucks brand made significant in-roads locally, provincially and across Canada since establishing itself last year on July 14, 2021.

Google Trends search term data examined by the Abbotsford News shows that, amongst all of the other Canadian-based American Hockey League teams, the Canucks were second behind the Laval Rocket (the Montreal Canadiens AHL affiliate).

Google Trends track Google searches by users over a set period of time. It’s considered one way to track popularity of online fans. The News compared the term “Abbotsford Canucks” with Laval Rocket, Toronto Marlies, Manitoba Moose and Belleville Senators within Canada from the past 12 months. That data can be seen below.

Either the Rocket or the Canucks were consistently atop the comparison, with the Canucks leading the portions of late-August and much of September. The Canucks received a spike during the opening of the AHL season from Oct. 17 to 23 and one at the start of the playoffs. The Canucks also led the way for much of January to mid-February.

Laval had strong spikes in early-November and massive spike in late-May and June when the team went on a deep playoff run. The Rocket led the way with an average relative search value of 17 over the past year compared to the other four teams. Abbotsford was second at seven, Manitoba was third (five), Toronto was fourth (four) and Belleville was fifth (two).

The Abbotsford Canucks worldwide search for the past 12 months hit its peak from May 1 to 7 when the team was in the playoffs. That term achieved a relative score of 100 during that time period. There were also bumps in of 94 and 92 in October and and spike of 57 in late-November to early-December.

Canada and B.C. specifically dominated the interest by subregion category. The top ten cities in B.C searching the term Abbotsford Canucks were:

  • Abbotsford
  • Mission
  • Chilliwack
  • Pitt Meadows
  • Langley
  • Maple Ridge
  • Delta
  • Surrey
  • Port Coquitlam
  • Vancouver

The top ten related queries for the term amongst users in B.C. include: Vancouver Canucks, Abbotsford Canucks schedule, Canucks schedule, Canucks news, Abbotsford News, Abbotsford Canucks news, Abbotsford Canucks tickets, AHL, Abbotsford weather and Canucks game.

The United States was the second-highest country searching the term worldwide, with Colorado, Washington State, Arizona, California and Nevada being the most active states.

The top ten related queries for the term worldwide were:

  • Abbotsford Canucks stats
  • Vancouver Giants
  • NHL scores
  • AHL standings
  • AHL scores
  • Abbotsford Canucks playoffs
  • Bakersfield Condors
  • Toronto Marlies
  • San Jose Barracuda
  • Nic Petan

Comparing the Abbotsford Canucks with other local sports teams, obviously the parent team in Vancouver is the juggernaut. Vancouver Canucks searches more than doubled any searches of the BC Lions, Abbotsford Canucks, Vancouver Whitecaps and Vancouver Canadians.

Vancouver peaked in early-December and also had a search spike in late-March. The Lions are a clear number two amongst these five teams and had bumps in this past June and August and September of 2021.

The top B.C. city searching for the term Vancouver Canucks was North Vancouver followed by New Westminster, White Rock, Pitt Meadows and Langley. Lions interest was highest in Gibsons followed by North Vancouver, Langley, Maple Ridge and Chilliwack. North Vancouver also led Whitecaps searches, followed by White Rock, Sechelt, Delta and Maple Ridge. Vancouver Canadians searchers were found in North Vancouver, New Westminster, White Rock, Pitt Meadows and Langley.

Comparing the Abbotsford Canucks to Fraser Valley-based teams reveals that the club has emerged as the most-searched team in the region. The Vancouver Giants did have spikes in early-October, late-December, mid-April and in May, but the majority of the year saw the Abbotsford Canucks stay atop the region. The Chilliwack Chiefs also had a spike in mid-April during that team’s playoff run. The Fraser Valley Bandits also had a spike when they began their season in June.

Back in late-December, the News looked at similar topics and also compared the social media reach of several local teams. Here are those updated numbers and the amount they have increased since:

Facebook Likes/Followers:

  • Vancouver Canucks - 929K (-7 per cent, Canucks no longer display likes amount this is a follower total)
  • Vancouver Whitecaps - 275,664 (-0.3 per cent)
  • BC Lions - 156,516 (+0.2 per cent)
  • Vancouver Canadians - 19,291 (+4 per cent)
  • Abbotsford Canucks - 3,662 (+40 per cent)

Instagram Followers

  • Vancouver Canucks - 557K (+2.5 per cent)
  • Vancouver Whitecaps - 155K (+4 per cent)
  • BC Lions - 55.8K (+18.7 per cent)
  • Vancouver Canadians - 20.7K (+25 per cent)
  • Abbotsford Canucks - 17.3K (+33 per cent)

Twitter Followers

  • Vancouver Canucks - 1 million (no change)
  • Vancouver Whitecaps - 334.8K (+0.2 per cent)
  • BC Lions - 127.4K (+1.7 per cent)
  • Vancouver Canadians - 28.2K (+6.8 per cent)
  • Abbotsford Canucks - 10.4K (+29.8 per cent)

RELATED: CHARTS: How popular are the Abbotsford Canucks?



Ben Lypka

About the Author: Ben Lypka

I joined the Abbotsford News in 2015.
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