Winning Fans & Feeds in Asia-Pacific: Cultural shifts influencing sport and fandom
Today, we’ve launched a new sports report, Winning Fans & Feeds in APAC, to help sponsors, rights-holders, marketers and broadcasters in the region understand the cultural trends driving the evolution of sport and fandom.
In 2026, multiple major sporting events will take place locally and across the globe. More than half a billion people across APAC are expected to engage with sport as a result, generating around 10.8 billion conversations online.
Winning Fans & Feeds in APAChighlights the key cultural trends driving sport’s evolution, the way they impact fandom, and how brands can engage to win fans and feeds in the new era of social-first sports entertainment.
With the landscape of sport evolving at pace, here are four shifts brands should be aware of to capitalise on the moment:
Shift 1: Energy in the intersections
Sport is becoming a shared global resource for infinite cultural remixing, and the outputs spread like wildfire on social media. Deep subcultures and niches are fuelling cultural products of their own in fashion, music and art by creating crossover moments and movements between sport and culture.
Shift 2: Entertainment in the algorithm
Sport is becoming equal parts entertainment and performance, with new distributors and platforms contributing to emerging fandom habits. As Netflix gets more involved in sports, fandom is being sparked not only from flagship reality and docu-style television, but even TikTok. Now, sports content and characters are spinning off from the anchor events of games themselves. This shift has elevated athletes as “main characters.”
Shift 3: Women in the driving seat
Women are taking centre court in this next chapter of sports, driving new fandoms, models for engagement, and social storytelling. Female fandom is booming – carving out space in traditionally male-dominated sports, and sparking entire businesses and communities built around a new and underserved audience.
Shift 4: Identity in the divide
Sports fandom and experiences are bifurcating. At one end of the spectrum is luxury, prestige and signalling, and at the other, grassroots, fan-first belonging for “real fans”. As tentpole events become a hotter and hotter ticket, fans focused on the community are developing their own events without all the trappings of an increasingly affluent customer and “luxury” experiences.
In addition to outlining four key trends shaping sport across APAC, the report introduces We Are Social’s proprietary Fandom Fabric methodology — including sport-specific brand archetypes designed to help marketers refine their strategies and maximise fan engagement.
Winning Fans & Feeds in APAC was compiled by We Are Social’s Strategy and Research & Insights team in the region, with guest contributor Grace Gordon.
