Home » Data Studies » Ro! Ro! Ro!: What Our Marketing Data Study Reveals About the Norway World Cup Effect

Ro! Ro! Ro!: What Our Marketing Data Study Reveals About the Norway World Cup Effect

The world spent the summer of 2026 on its screens, and somewhere between the goals and the upsets, it climbed into a boat with Norway and started to row. What looked like a viral celebration was also a wave of real attention. Across search and social, people went looking for Norwegian players, followed them, and stuck around. We measured it. This is the data behind Norway's World Cup moment.

by Bence Székely

Published on July 21, 2026 | Last edit: July 21, 2026

Ro! Ro! Ro! That was the chant everyone picked up. After a big result, the Norwegian players lined up on the pitch, sat down, and mimed a rowing crew. A drum kept the beat, and they pulled their oars in time. The clip crossed borders in hours, and a team that usually plays out of the spotlight had the whole planet leaning in.

Attention like that never stays on the pitch. It spills into follower counts and search bars. Digital traces people leave behind for digital marketers to analyze when something catches their attention.

So let's read them. Did anyone outgrow Norway's biggest star, Erling Haaland, when you stop counting followers and start counting percentages? And how hard did America fall for a team it barely knew a month earlier?

Let's kick off the analysis, then.

Key Takeaways

The biggest name and the biggest growth weren't the same player. Haaland remained Norway's most-followed star by a wide margin, but the sharpest percentage growth came from lesser-known names like Ørjan Nyland, who saw 794% growth against Haaland's 77%.
It wasn't just the players, it was the whole team. The national team's own accounts climbed across every platform, adding almost 3.7 million new followers on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook combined as the world tuned in.
Big matches drove big spikes. Follower growth wasn't steady, it jumped after key games, with the biggest single-day gains landing in the 48 hours after Norway's standout performances.
Attention turned commercial. Interest didn't stop at curiosity: US searches for the Norway jersey rose around 88-fold, reaching roughly 110,000 in June as fans went looking to buy in.
The culture travelled too. Searches for the ro-ro-ro rowing celebration and other Norwegian football moments surged, some from almost nothing.

Structure of the Study

Meet the Players Who Caught the World's Eye

It could be tempting to look at a run like Norway's and only track the obvious names. The data says otherwise. Every name on the team sheet picked up Instagram followers over the tournament, from the household stars to the players most fans outside Norway were meeting for the first time. Nobody got left on the bench when the attention showed up.

Two Ways to Win: Percentage vs Absolute

Shall we name who won the most followers on Instagram, or will you guess that on your own? Well, we think you were right: Erling Haaland. The obvious giant. He added around 30.8 million followers over the tournament, 1.75x the following he started with, one that was already enormous. No teammate comes close in raw terms. In absolute numbers, it's Haaland and then everyone else.

Top 10 Norwegian Players by Instagram Followers Gained

Bars use a logarithmic scale, so every player stays visible despite the huge gap in scale. Numbers show followers gained (start → end).

100k

10M

Erling Haaland

+31.3M 40.8M → 72.2M

Ørjan Nyland

+535k 67k → 603k

Martin Ødegaard

+372k 7.3M → 7.7M

Patrick Berg

+336k 87k → 422k

Antonio Nusa

+215k 316k → 530k

Andreas Schjelderup

+209k 290k → 499k

Oscar Bobb

+118k 497k → 616k

Alexander Sørloth

+91k 588k → 679k

Sander Berge

+75k 126k → 201k

Julian Ryerson

+71k 135k → 207k

Instagram follower counts sourced from Social Blade and HypeAuditor, measured on the day of Norway's first match of the tournament and again at the end.

But switch the scoreboard to relative percentage, and the picture flips. When we compare growth to the player's starting follower number before Norway's first match, the big star lands on the 7th spot. The top spot on the board belongs to the squad's main goalkeeper, Ørjan Nyland, who reached 894% of his starting following, a near 9x jump, better than half a million new followers, taking him to around 600,000 on Instagram. Patrick Berg sits second at 487%. He is followed by another goalie, Egil Selvik.

Top 10 Norwegian Players by Instagram Follower Growth (%)

Ørjan Nyland

67k → 603k

+794%

Patrick Berg

87k → 422k

+387%

Egil Selvik

7k → 20k

+189%

Torbjørn Heggem

16k → 35k

+117%

Henrik Falchener

9k → 19k

+114%

Kristian Thorstvedt

44k → 79k

+80%

Erling Haaland

40.8M → 72.2M

+77%

David Møller Wolfe

34k → 58k

+74%

Andreas Schjelderup

290k → 499k

+72%

Antonio Nusa

316k → 530k

+68%

Instagram follower counts sourced from Social Blade and HypeAuditor. Growth shows the end count as a multiple of the starting count.

Our Take: Small Accounts, Big Jumps

Of course, that flip isn't a fluke, and it isn't a knock on Haaland. It's just how growth math works most of the time. When you already sit on 40 million followers, another few million barely nudges the percentage. Start from 60,000, and the same wave of attention can multiply you many times over. Especially on the back of a performance like Nyland's against Brazil. A smaller account has more room to run, so it climbs higher in percentage terms almost by default.

Worth keeping in mind the next time you meet a "fastest growing" chart anywhere. Percentage often rewards the small base. Absolute rewards the big one. Read both, or you only get half the story.

The Spikes: Attention Arrived Match by Match

The followers cluster around match days. Play a game, especially a good one, and the numbers move over the next few days. Timing like that, catching a moment while attention peaks, can be the heart of good social media marketing.

The Brazil match on July 5 was the turning point. The day after, follower counts across the squad jumped together. Ørjan Nyland is the clearest case. In goal against Brazil he had the game of his life, and his following nearly tripled in a single day, from roughly 99,000 to 288,000. One match, one performance, an account transformed overnight.

Haaland felt it too. He scored twice in that stretch, and his single biggest follower jump of the whole tournament landed right there.

Then there's Patrick Berg. His climb started after Brazil and kept accelerating into the next week. Part of it was the football. Part of it was a quirk the internet couldn't resist: highlights about his resemblance to actor Simon Baker that spread across TikTok and Instagram just as his numbers took off around July 9. Performance and meme, pulling in the same direction. He finished as one of the biggest gainers on the team, adding more than 339,000 followers.

Daily Follower Growth on Instagram for the Norwegian Squad

Player	Min	G	A	vs IRQ16 Jun	17 Jun	18 Jun	19 Jun	20 Jun	21 Jun	vs SEN22 Jun	23 Jun	24 Jun	25 Jun	vs FRA26 Jun	27 Jun	28 Jun	29 Jun	vs CIV30 Jun	1 Jul	2 Jul	3 Jul	4 Jul	vs BRA5 Jul	6 Jul	7 Jul	8 Jul	9 Jul	10 Jul	vs ENG11 Jul	12 Jul	13 Jul	14 Jul	15 Jul	16 Jul	17 Jul	18 Jul	19 Jul	Total Growth (%)	Followers Gained
Ørjan Nyland	480	–	–	67,420	68,334	70,480	71,322	71,812	72,479	72,848	73,821	74,887	75,343	75,723	76,096	76,801	77,568	78,197	88,202	91,675	92,934	93,600	98,691	287,729	337,036	371,267	384,984	395,944	406,063	450,886	501,843	562,582	584,008	591,692	596,461	600,153	602,735	894.00%	535,315
Sander Tangvik	–	–	–	16,128	16,387	16,474	16,548	16,586	16,642	16,698	16,844	16,942	16,990	17,044	17,419	17,528	17,589	17,694	17,911	18,006	18,074	18,160	18,255	18,867	19,102	19,257	19,368	19,501	19,620	20,233	20,473	21,153	21,628	21,816	21,956	22,085	22,191	137.59%	6,063
Egil Selvik	90	–	–	6,760	6,829	6,888	6,926	6,970	7,029	7,080	7,153	7,246	7,328	7,461	8,210	8,469	10,284	11,043	11,943	12,466	12,875	13,211	13,513	14,564	15,204	15,862	16,285	16,664	17,121	17,739	18,180	18,789	19,027	19,186	19,319	19,448	19,526	288.85%	12,766
Kristoffer Ajer	480	–	–	112,011	112,440	112,674	112,775	112,839	112,926	113,045	113,376	114,781	115,449	115,832	116,098	116,372	116,573	116,810	118,311	119,997	120,547	120,938	121,223	127,669	130,129	131,469	132,493	133,407	134,445	139,863	144,417	148,164	150,229	151,501	152,367	153,003	153,340	136.90%	41,329
Leo Østigård	145	1	–	161,157	162,751	166,611	168,872	170,180	171,559	172,273	173,311	174,201	174,622	175,010	175,574	175,960	176,229	176,560	177,425	177,945	178,214	178,399	178,570	181,101	182,527	183,408	184,063	184,734	185,467	187,304	189,503	192,396	193,597	194,199	194,523	194,843	195,020	121.01%	33,863
David Møller Wolfe	433	–	1	33,537	33,844	34,743	35,062	35,282	35,445	35,617	36,018	36,659	36,922	37,133	37,432	37,583	37,852	38,077	39,440	40,172	40,474	40,730	40,998	43,484	46,524	47,697	48,578	49,212	49,771	51,704	53,669	55,528	56,567	57,265	57,795	58,174	58,425	174.21%	24,888
Fredrik Andre Bjørkan	45	–	–	10,752	10,796	10,814	10,823	10,842	10,844	10,852	10,882	10,909	10,922	10,932	11,011	11,033	11,041	11,064	11,131	11,163	11,190	11,230	11,273	11,448	11,558	11,658	11,723	11,772	11,826	11,929	12,011	12,297	13,855	14,268	14,441	14,589	14,713	136.84%	3,961
Marcus Holmgren Pedersen	236	1	–	82,592	82,647	82,670	82,631	82,658	82,608	82,596	104,746	107,059	107,728	108,076	108,238	108,142	108,095	108,177	117,140	116,867	116,412	116,190	116,206	116,922	117,355	117,555	117,641	117,718	117,895	118,343	118,761	121,300	122,240	122,343	122,433	122,485	122,438	148.24%	39,846
Torbjørn Heggem	444	–	–	16,288	16,565	16,738	16,829	16,888	16,928	16,994	17,170	17,533	17,957	18,136	18,300	18,444	18,544	18,644	19,123	19,726	20,081	20,248	20,378	22,758	24,100	24,617	25,014	25,318	25,581	27,488	30,553	32,502	33,593	34,255	34,733	35,084	35,315	216.82%	19,027
Sondre Langås	24	–	–	11,928	12,130	12,246	12,298	12,344	12,375	12,458	12,542	12,617	12,659	12,693	12,834	13,778	14,364	14,600	14,880	15,166	15,323	15,430	15,565	16,095	16,567	16,873	17,134	17,339	17,507	17,828	18,320	18,967	19,240	19,397	19,490	19,563	19,598	164.30%	7,670
Henrik Falchener	66	–	–	8,811	9,030	9,124	9,130	9,193	9,219	9,286	9,425	9,508	9,582	9,671	10,757	11,767	12,084	12,310	12,725	12,972	13,121	13,163	13,303	14,194	14,728	15,057	15,361	15,602	15,811	16,235	16,887	17,667	18,110	18,365	18,534	18,726	18,821	213.61%	10,010
Morten Thorsby	45	–	–	42,005	42,079	42,130	42,339	42,406	42,454	42,528	42,642	42,786	42,879	42,961	43,112	43,553	43,834	44,076	44,473	44,700	44,845	44,954	45,068	46,088	46,908	47,504	47,989	48,459	49,169	50,611	52,284	54,170	54,862	55,295	55,559	55,881	56,153	133.68%	14,148
Patrick Berg *	444	–	2	86,738	87,697	87,757	89,279	90,138	91,307	91,802	93,478	93,884	95,622	96,314	97,866	98,821	98,868	99,542	110,235	111,580	118,465	120,753	123,123	129,692	200,485	206,493	246,204	267,248	271,926	300,099	360,644	376,072	394,211	396,710	412,908	422,177	422,312	486.88%	335,574
Sander Berge	480	–	–	126,165	126,781	129,174	129,845	130,241	130,609	131,012	131,763	133,978	135,015	135,579	136,346	136,875	137,162	137,525	139,919	141,142	141,777	142,246	142,728	149,444	156,577	160,856	163,225	164,773	166,189	169,228	174,155	179,780	185,526	189,979	191,649	198,812	201,213	159.48%	75,048
Martin Odegaard	471	–	4	7,283,291	7,286,626	7,291,022	7,292,403	7,293,786	7,294,926	7,296,405	7,307,552	7,328,283	7,332,930	7,336,745	7,340,416	7,344,105	7,347,394	7,349,738	7,371,177	7,376,900	7,382,242	7,386,936	7,401,144	7,450,572	7,471,145	7,495,992	7,516,735	7,529,889	7,539,872	7,562,757	7,589,514	7,618,992	7,633,199	7,641,559	7,646,641	7,651,020	7,654,951	105.10%	371,660
Fredrik Aursnes	302	–	–	150,976	151,100	151,136	151,155	151,164	151,198	151,229	151,289	151,363	151,418	151,442	151,545	151,611	151,623	151,646	151,789	151,853	151,888	151,937	151,982	152,504	152,863	153,039	153,194	153,319	153,457	153,988	156,330	157,704	161,297	162,541	163,084	163,516	163,815	108.50%	12,839
Kristian Thorstvedt	62	–	–	43,531	44,876	46,532	47,219	47,612	47,898	48,184	48,611	49,028	49,328	49,610	50,275	50,615	51,340	51,958	53,109	53,699	54,070	54,412	54,693	57,222	59,771	61,146	62,109	62,765	63,516	65,738	69,225	73,607	75,532	76,617	77,380	78,050	78,573	180.50%	35,042
Thelo Aasgaard	90	1	–	74,591	74,747	74,832	74,878	74,904	74,935	74,977	75,061	75,127	75,173	75,244	77,861	80,450	81,380	81,858	82,565	83,021	83,282	83,458	83,704	84,878	85,553	86,025	86,514	86,749	87,097	87,759	88,397	89,381	92,751	93,767	94,315	94,721	94,999	127.36%	20,408
Andreas Schjelderup	251	1	3	289,647	290,785	291,449	291,887	292,275	292,679	293,004	293,801	295,617	297,148	298,154	300,874	301,919	302,444	302,775	304,590	305,749	306,449	306,875	307,259	328,103	339,344	343,443	346,195	348,501	360,992	387,105	454,935	470,356	482,907	488,904	494,980	497,111	498,961	172.27%	209,314
Oscar Bobb	222	–	–	497,295	497,360	497,449	497,390	497,312	497,226	497,197	497,401	502,282	505,523	506,797	510,497	512,169	513,128	513,631	517,511	519,328	520,431	521,345	522,128	542,729	551,087	555,613	558,736	562,601	566,325	574,042	589,175	601,292	605,846	609,238	612,131	614,075	615,611	123.79%	118,316
Jens Petter Hauge	7	–	–	262,858	262,932	262,936	262,932	262,919	262,887	262,890	262,900	262,853	262,854	262,847	262,953	262,946	262,932	262,910	262,959	263,005	263,010	262,996	262,996	263,168	263,263	263,367	263,448	263,460	263,527	263,705	263,842	264,279	264,354	264,399	264,426	264,433	264,423	100.60%	1,565
Alexander Sørloth	341	–	–	588,223	589,860	593,414	595,002	595,793	596,433	597,200	599,504	603,585	604,936	605,721	607,026	607,879	608,579	609,414	611,866	613,466	614,413	615,114	615,959	623,508	628,050	630,341	632,188	633,411	635,134	651,728	661,722	671,876	674,790	676,442	677,361	678,194	678,748	115.39%	90,525
Erling Haaland	465	7	–	40,846,546	41,131,695	41,421,997	41,514,021	41,702,120	41,826,161	41,977,873	42,441,516	42,778,030	43,106,619	43,426,609	43,639,523	44,051,274	44,295,493	44,836,183	45,697,658	46,332,368	46,727,992	47,402,110	48,512,170	53,563,246	56,254,537	58,260,289	59,634,405	60,910,910	62,881,067	65,096,836	67,115,742	68,591,213	69,420,343	70,221,209	70,873,434	71,425,166	72,192,419	176.74%	31,345,873
Strand Larsen	105	–	–	155,214	155,680	156,184	156,550	156,935	157,269	157,565	158,199	158,723	158,928	159,151	160,057	160,376	160,518	160,686	161,225	162,987	165,162	166,212	166,926	170,984	174,458	176,023	177,241	178,518	179,966	183,237	186,546	191,622	193,087	194,262	195,089	195,837	196,236	126.43%	41,022
Antonio Nusa	319	1	–	315,720	319,936	329,333	334,278	336,615	338,278	339,757	342,629	344,869	346,637	348,132	350,866	352,317	353,635	354,791	387,272	400,402	405,511	408,797	411,254	431,438	444,885	450,064	454,033	457,676	461,455	470,520	482,245	504,877	519,033	523,555	526,532	528,612	530,364	167.99%	214,644
Julian Ryerson *	226	–	–	135,189	135,716	135,718	135,760	136,451	136,660	136,762	137,080	137,383	137,606	137,719	138,044	138,266	138,429	138,613	138,915	139,023	139,552	141,087	142,780	150,776	157,972	163,896	167,338	168,925	171,290	176,600	182,075	187,355	193,631	199,634	202,628	205,668	206,518	152.76%	71,329

Instagram daily follower counts sourced from Social Blade and HypeAuditor (marked with *). Highlighted columns mark Norway's match days (US time). Minutes played, goals and assists are from Transfermarkt.

One Squad, Pulling Together

Everybody always measures players one by one. Sure, it's an interesting take. But this time Norway didn't only perform as 26 separate follower counts. They won as a real team, and the team's own accounts confirm that story. For the Norwegian national football team, the tournament was just as big a moment as it was for the players.

The National Team's Follower Growth by Platform (%)

Facebook+388%

231k → 1.1M

TikTok+164%

1.1M → 2.9M

Instagram+127%

751k → 1.7M

Follower counts for the national team's official accounts sourced from Social Blade, measured from Norway's first match of the tournament to the end.

Instagram was the flagship. Before the tournament, the men's national team page counted around 750,000 followers. It grew to 1.7 million. That's almost a million new followers.

TikTok brought the biggest raw haul. It started as the largest of their social channels, with 1.1 million followers, and it's still the biggest today at 2.9 million. That's around 1.8 million new people. Norwegian fans would say that's worth a triple Ro.

Facebook is the quiet surprise. Before the first match, the national team page had around 230,000 fans. Now? A thrilling 1.1 million. It's wild, since plenty of people will tell you Facebook is a dead platform. We tend to think otherwise.

Daily Follower Growth of the Norwegian National Team on Their Social Channels

Platform	vs IRQ16 Jun	17 Jun	18 Jun	19 Jun	20 Jun	21 Jun	vs SEN22 Jun	23 Jun	24 Jun	25 Jun	vs FRA26 Jun	27 Jun	28 Jun	29 Jun	vs CIV30 Jun	1 Jul	2 Jul	3 Jul	4 Jul	vs BRA5 Jul	6 Jul	7 Jul	8 Jul	9 Jul	10 Jul	vs ENG11 Jul	12 Jul	13 Jul	14 Jul	15 Jul	16 Jul	17 Jul	18 Jul	19 Jul	Total Growth (%)	Followers Gained
Instagram	751,388	773,314	784,042	789,436	791,884	795,909	800,270	823,987	845,747	854,535	864,081	873,286	878,248	882,553	895,033	939,901	958,474	966,739	971,418	998,648	1,188,413	1,341,540	1,401,400	1,439,668	1,474,420	1,507,548	1,579,387	1,652,990	1,671,684	1,676,775	1,685,991	1,693,187	1,698,608	1,703,905	226.77%	952,517
TikTok	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,100,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,200,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,300,000	1,400,000	1,400,000	1,500,000	1,500,000	1,600,000	1,600,000	1,900,000	2,000,000	2,100,000	2,200,000	2,300,000	2,400,000	2,600,000	2,700,000	2,800,000	2,900,000	2,900,000	2,900,000	2,900,000	263.64%	1,800,000
Facebook	230,753	233,425	240,568	241,896	242,860	244,079	245,236	249,379	271,168	278,730	283,351	300,182	303,763	306,096	308,397	322,009	347,292	354,539	359,578	363,683	398,647	759,933	835,063	869,948	901,447	949,061	1,001,116	1,073,737	1,101,768	1,113,641	1,117,719	1,120,799	1,123,071	1,125,558	487.78%	894,805

Follower counts for the national team's official accounts sourced from Social Blade. Highlighted columns mark Norway's match days (US time).

Three accounts, three shapes of growth, together one big win for the whole squad.

How America Fell for Norway

Everything above was global by nature. Followers come in from all over the world, wherever the clips land. This section is different. Here we zoom in on one country, the United States, the tournament's main host, focusing on one question: how curious was America about Norway's run?

We measured that with a method we use in every one of our search engine optimization projects: keyword research into how people search on Google. We used the DataForSEO API to find out search volumes for a selected set of search queries in the US, measuring what Americans searched for in June 2026 against their normal search traffic over the previous year.

A team that barely registered in US search bars a month earlier suddenly had people typing Norwegian names, chants, and jerseys by the hundreds of thousands. This is where you can watch a country discover a team almost in real time.

The Names in the Search Bar: Stars, Breakouts, and Discoveries

Three kinds of players show up in the search data, and each tells a slightly different story.

First, the established stars, the ones Americans already had a reason to know. Haaland, unsurprisingly, dwarfs everyone: around 4.7 million US searches in June, roughly 20 times his normal traffic. Martin Ødegaard follows at about 217,000, and Antonio Nusa at 157,000. Big names, big numbers, exactly where you'd expect them

Then the breakouts, players with a decent baseline who leapt during the tournament. Ørjan Nyland went from just 1,700 searches a month to 37,900 in June, nearly 23 times his usual. Even the coach got pulled in: Ståle Solbakken jumped 27x!

And the discoveries, the players America met cold. These sit on tiny baselines, so the multiples get wild, but the honest read is that they started from almost nothing and became genuinely searched. Henrik Falchener is the headline: from about 48 searches a month to 12,100, a 252x jump. Sander Tangvik rose 64x, Leo Østigård nearly 49x.

US Google Search Volumes for the Norwegian Squad

Player	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Yearly Avg. Before WC	WC Month vs Average
Ørjan Nyland	1,090	1,120	1,520	1,110	1,420	37,900	1,671	2,268.3%
Sander Tangvik	230	230	220	80	440	10,040	158	6,341.1%
Egil Selvik	160	160	370	210	260	8,360	230	3,634.8%
Kristoffer Ajer	1,270	1,690	1,390	850	1,390	23,500	1,848	1,271.4%
Leo Østigård	700	370	530	480	780	25,630	527	4,866.5%
David Møller Wolfe	8,960	7,250	7,690	8,570	7,120	24,580	10,963	224.2%
Fredrik Andre Bjørkan	170	240	140	130	170	370	188	197.3%
Marcus Holmgren Pedersen	5,550	6,800	5,740	5,620	40,860	21,800	11,419	190.9%
Torbjørn Heggem	1,440	390	550	460	390	15,520	821	1,890.8%
Sondre Langås	290	270	240	190	260	6,780	268	2,526.7%
Henrik Falchener	20	10	140	70	210	12,100	48	25,473.7%
Morten Thorsby	1,210	1,390	1,990	1,860	1,690	8,200	1,865	439.7%
Patrick Berg	16,700	19,200	20,200	15,800	16,100	36,200	16,316	221.9%
Sander Berge	4,000	4,800	4,500	4,600	4,200	25,100	4,577	548.4%
Martin Ødegaard	43,550	53,150	57,770	46,890	78,590	217,310	48,921	444.2%
Fredrik Aursnes	1,510	4,190	490	370	600	16,100	1,203	1,338.0%
Kristian Thorstvedt	370	390	680	360	570	13,700	469	2,920.1%
Thelo Aasgaard	1,160	1,010	980	400	850	22,640	2,498	906.5%
Andreas Schjelderup	12,300	9,700	6,700	4,200	2,990	32,500	5,567	583.8%
Oscar Bobb	25,100	14,500	12,300	11,000	10,500	78,400	14,958	524.1%
Jens Petter Hauge	8,000	21,700	12,800	2,900	2,600	8,200	5,778	141.9%
Alexander Sørloth	17,270	25,860	14,010	48,980	16,070	89,400	19,498	458.5%
Erling Haaland	233,660	190,680	233,680	232,210	233,710	4,681,040	239,909	1,951.2%
Strand Larsen	14,300	11,700	2,790	1,620	2,080	7,800	6,438	121.1%
Antonio Nusa	8,300	6,000	6,500	8,800	11,000	157,200	10,450	1,504.3%
Julian Ryerson	24,100	27,600	25,100	29,500	25,800	67,600	25,275	267.5%
Ståle Solbakken	410	360	680	410	560	19,700	729	2,701.7%

Estimated monthly US Google search volumes via the DataForSEO API. Each player’s figure is the combined total of searches across relevant name formats, spellings and variations. June 2026, highlighted as the World Cup month, is compared with the average for the twelve preceding months. For players with common or ambiguous names, such as Berg, some searches may refer to another person or topic, so the figures should be interpreted with caution. Search volumes are estimates, not exact counts, and do not confirm individual search intent.

But what about everything else? The habits, the jerseys, the iconic rowing? The data won't lie.

Rowing, Jerseys, and the Tricky Language: Norwegian Specialties

Let's talk about the fun part. Everything around the players and the team.

The Rowing, the Chant and the Fans

An unusual little celebration? Better go search it. "Norwegian rowing" searches ran about 130 times their normal level, and terms like "norway rowing celebration" appeared essentially from zero. People wanted to know what on earth this team was doing sitting down on the pitch. "Norway chant" ran about 360 times its usual level, and "norway fans" around 300 times. People wanted in on the culture around the team.

US Google Search Volumes for Fan-related Terms

Search Term	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Yearly Avg. Before WC	WC Month vs Average
norwegian rowing	–	–	10	10	10	1,300	10	13,000.0%
norwegian fans	10	10	10	10	10	1,000	10	10,000.0%
norway fans	20	30	10	20	20	5,400	18	29,700.0%
norway chant	10	10	10	10	10	3,600	10	36,000.0%
viking clap	140	110	90	110	110	880	140	628.6%
viking thunder clap	30	20	50	40	50	260	39	663.8%
norway celebration	70	50	90	90	170	1,900	75	2,518.1%
norway rowing celebration	0	0	0	0	0	480	0	n/a
haaland celebration	590	590	880	1,000	880	2,900	809	358.4%

Estimated monthly US Google search volumes via the DataForSEO API. June 2026 (highlighted) is the World Cup month, shown against the twelve-month pre-tournament average. Search volumes are estimates, not exact counts.

The Team and the Country

Americans searched the team itself, in every phrasing they could think of. Plain "Norway" climbed to about 1.2 million US searches in June, up from a normal of roughly 330,000. The specific terms jumped harder: "Norway national soccer team" reached around 1.5 million, up about 40 times its usual level, and "norwegian football players" rose from about 1,100 searches a month to 90,500.

US Google Search Volumes for Team-related Terms

Search Term	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Yearly Avg. Before WC	WC Month vs Average
norway	368,000	450,000	368,000	301,000	301,000	1,220,000	330,167	369.5%
norway national soccer team	8,100	6,600	33,100	18,100	22,200	1,500,000	37,567	3,992.9%
norway national football team players	3,600	3,600	6,600	6,600	12,100	246,000	6,125	4,016.3%
norway national football team standings	590	480	1,600	1,600	2,400	201,000	5,753	3,494.1%
norway football	720	720	1,300	1,000	1,300	33,100	2,367	1,398.6%
norway soccer	1,300	1,600	4,400	2,400	3,600	301,000	6,677	4,508.2%
norway world cup squad	90	140	110	210	4,400	8,100	433	1,872.8%
norwegian squad	30	50	70	70	90	720	63	1,147.8%
norwegian football players	1,000	1,300	1,000	1,300	1,600	90,500	1,143	7,915.5%
norway soccer team	1,000	1,300	1,900	1,600	2,400	74,000	1,506	4,914.2%
norway football team	390	390	480	480	590	14,800	613	2,413.0%

The Jerseys

This is where curiosity turns commercial. "Norway jersey" searches hit around 110,000 in June, nearly 88 times normal. And yes, Haaland shows up here too, with searches for his shirt around 49,500. When people start looking for the jersey, they've stopped watching and started buying. If your business was bidding on these terms with Google Shopping ads, you had a very good month.

US Google Search Volumes for Jersey-related Terms

Search Term	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Yearly Avg. Before WC	WC Month vs Average
norway jerseynorwegian jersey	880	720	2,400	1,900	3,600	110,000	1,253	8,782.4%
norwegian football jersey	70	90	170	140	210	3,600	131	2,750.0%
norwegian soccer jerseynorwegian national team jersey, norway soccer jersey	880	880	1,600	1,300	2,400	40,500	1,208	3,351.7%
erling haaland jersey	590	590	720	880	1,000	27,100	915	2,963.2%
haaland jersey	1,600	1,300	1,600	1,900	2,400	49,500	2,236	2,213.4%
ødegaard jersey	110	70	90	110	260	880	165	531.9%
martin odegaard jersey	30	30	30	40	70	170	43	392.3%

The Tricky Language

Norwegian names and letters don't make life easy for an American tongue. Here's how they tackled it.

"How to pronounce Haaland" jumped 35x, because reading a name and saying it out loud are very different challenges. And here's the detail we love most: Americans didn't settle for the easy anglicized spellings. They typed the real Norwegian names, ø and å included, searching "Ørjan Nyland" and "Leo Østigård" with the correct letters. A country that a month earlier couldn't have found the “å” key was suddenly using it.

US Google Search Volumes for Language-related Terms

Search Term	Jan 2026	Feb 2026	Mar 2026	Apr 2026	May 2026	Jun 2026	Yearly Avg. Before WC	WC Month vs Average
haaland pronunciation	90	70	70	90	90	2,900	75	3,866.7%
how to pronounce haaland	30	40	30	40	40	1,300	37	3,545.5%
odegaard pronunciation	30	40	30	50	50	320	35	914.3%
how to pronounce odegaard	10	10	20	10	20	110	13	825.0%

The Method Behind the Numbers

We measured attention two ways, and they aren't the same thing:

Social following is global.
Search interest is US only.

We've kept them apart throughout, so nobody reads an American search spike as worldwide, and every percentage comes paired with the raw number it grew from. Take all of it with a pinch of salt. Google figures are always estimates, and follower counts change fast. No single number here is gospel. As a trend, both are solid, and when search and social move together, as they did throughout the tournament, that's the real signal.

One thing we'll say plainly: a follower count isn't a number we'd tell a brand to judge success by. But for a player stepping onto the world stage, a growing following is a fair proxy for familiarity, more people who now know the name. And when performances back it up, the way they did for Norway, that curve becomes evidence.

Google search data was collected through the DataForSEO API. Follower numbers came from Social Blade and HypeAuditor. Sources sit beneath each table and chart.

What the Data Really Tells Us

A country the world barely tracked in the spring spent June and July being followed and actively searched. The follower counts climbed for the players and the national team alike. America went looking for Norwegian names, Norwegian chants, even Norway's jerseys.

The story holds a lesson worth keeping. When a team like Norway shows up to an event like this, with its own habits, its loud and loyal fans, and stars who shine at home and abroad, and then truly performs, the world leans in. And performance or not (by the way, theirs was superb, congratulations!), they still won: Attention. Growth. Recognition.

Norway did the rowing. The data confirmed the rest.

Ro! Ro! Ro!

Study presented by

Bence Székely

Ben is the Co-Founder & Strategy Lead of Frem Digital. He specializes in digital strategy, social media, SEO, visual content creation and creative development. He has 15+ years’ experience in various fields of digital and offline marketing. He’s one of the rare agency leads who actively works across all these fields.