Connor McDavid leads the NHL in assists, but it turns out his social media numbers are getting a huge assist — from bots.
In a recent study of the Instagram accounts of Canadian NHL stars, McDavid leads the group with the most fake followers.
BonusFinder Canada analyzed social media profiles of Canada’s most prominent hockey stars to determine which top players are possibly earning the most from fraudulent fans.
McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers superstar centre, appears to have more than 183,000 fake or bot accounts following him, making up 16.7% of his 1.1M total.
However, in terms of the ratio between true and apparent fake subscribers, Nathan MacKinnon blows away the competition.
Nearly a quarter (24.4%) of the Colorado Avalanche star’s following appears to be from bots or fakes, besting Aaron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers who sits at roughly 21.5%.
MacKinnon, despite boasting a hearty 321,400 total followers has a low engagement rate of 12.6%.
The study also found that Penguins defenceman Kris Letang has the smallest engagement rate amongst the group at just 5.19%. The two-time Stanley Cup champion ranks third in the group in both the total of fake followers and in terms of percentage.
When you factor that these athletes are considered influencers and can receive a payout from each post on the social media site, the numbers get even more interesting.
According to the report, McDavid could potentially earn between $217-$267 per post from his fake followers alone. Considering that of the group studied, McDavid is one of the more frequent posters, it certainly can add up.
MacKinnon could be raking in between $127-$155 from his fraudulent following while Maple Leafs forward William Nylander – who recently signed a massive contract extension — could earn between $80-$97 per post thanks to bots.
Compared to other major North American sports, NHL stars are lagging far behind in terms of social media followings, according to the report.
Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin leads the league with 1.7 million followers, far behind his counterparts.
LeBron James is far and away the most popular North American-born athlete on Instagram with 159 million fans, Baltimore Ravens receiver Odell Beckham Jr. leads the NFL at 17.7M and Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani boasts 7.1M.
But, of course, there is the newly arrived MLS king Lionel Messi. The global icon boasts an astounding 499 million followers on Instagram.
The league itself has 6.1 million Instagram followers, which pales in comparison to the NBA’s whopping 86.3 million total, the NFL’s 29.8 million, and MLB’s 10.6 million.
Even MLS isn’t very far behind the hockey circuit, coming in at 4.3 million followers thanks to a spike from last year’s Inter Miami signing of Messi.