Fitness fans flock to TikTok for ‘Fitspo’ and Sports Content

As Covid-19 has disrupted how people exercise in 2020, a new ‘Fitspo’ trend has emerged: TikTok fitness.

With fitness fanatics eager to stay active and passionate sports fans looking to support their teams during times of lockdown and social distancing, sports-related content has grown by a staggering 270% on the leading short-form video platform (based on March - July 2020). 

In line with this new trend, local Saudi football clubs, regional athletes and sports personalities - from motivating coaches to balance gurus and football freestylers - are making a name for themselves on the platform and sharing unique video content to an active and passionate TikTok community.

One sport that captures the hearts and minds of the region more than any other: football. Challenges inviting football fans to celebrate ‘the beautiful game’ such as #footballisback have amassed over 330 million views from fans to date. 

In Saudi Arabia, one of the biggest clubs and the champions of Asia Al Hilal football club joined TikTok by end of July 2020 and garnered more than 150K fans in only 10 days while its hashtag  #AlHilal had amassed over 1 billion views. 

The awe-inspiring creativity of freestyle football is also booming on the platform. Creators such as international freestyle legend Sean Freestyle and local and regional stars Fahed Albreiki, Ammar Freez and Mohammed Al Noufali have taken their skills and mind-blowing ball handling to TikTok to entertain and inspire more people to enjoy the sport.  

Regional athletes like Walid Yari, Omeir Saeed and Abeer MK have brought their signature style with a ‘TikTok twist’ to get Saudi and regional fans moving with inspiring content and challenges such #balanceshow (126.7m views globally) or #my_move(174.2m views globally).