Winners of Hearts: These Bundesliga Fans Are the Most Likable, According to AI
Twenty-Eight analyzes which German football clubs' fan bases AI systems perceive as the most likable
Borussia Dortmund leads the likability ranking, followed by FC Bayern München and VfB Stuttgart
Editorial and institutional sources have a particularly strong influence on the AI's answers
Berlin, June 4. The 2025/26 Bundesliga season is drawing to a close. While the German champion has already been decided, the winner of hearts is still up for debate: which club has the most likable fans? Football supporters would likely struggle to give an objective answer. AI models, by contrast, draw on publicly available information and online discourse to form their own picture of clubs and their fan groups. The PR agency Twenty-Eight looked into this perception using the AI monitoring software Peec.ai. Around 750 AI responses were analyzed and evaluated against factors such as support, positivity, fan culture and loyalty.
Borussia Dortmund has the most likable fans, according to AI
Borussia Dortmund's fans shape the AI's answers most strongly. BVB supporters are mentioned in 66 percent of the responses evaluated. FC Bayern München's fans come second with a visibility of 53 percent. Behind them are the supporters of VfB Stuttgart, who are mentioned in 50 percent of responses.
The top five is completed by the fans of Eintracht Frankfurt with 38 percent and the supporters of Union Berlin with 36 percent. Also frequently mentioned are the fans of Schalke 04 (30 percent), 1. FC Köln (23 percent) and FC St. Pauli (21 percent). The results show that in the AI's perception, fan culture, tradition and media presence count alongside current sporting success.
At the bottom of the ranking are the fans of 1. FC Heidenheim with one percent visibility and the supporters of FSV Mainz 05 with two percent. The fans of FC Augsburg and VfL Wolfsburg are also mentioned comparatively rarely, at three percent each.
Gladbach fans are rarely mentioned but rated most positively
Although the fans of Borussia Mönchengladbach appear in only eight percent of AI responses, they achieve the highest sentiment score in the study with 67 points. Peec.ai calculates sentiment based on the tone and context in which clubs and their supporters appear in AI responses. Gladbach fans are mentioned particularly positively in connection with the atmosphere and mood in the stadium.
Next come the fans of FC St. Pauli with 63 points, closely followed by the supporters of VfB Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt with 62 points each. The fans of 1. FC Köln and HSV also score above average with 61 points. TSG Hoffenheim's fans sit at the bottom of the sentiment ranking with 38 points, followed by RB Leipzig's fans with 46 points. Both clubs receive comparatively muted positive ratings in the AI responses.
Bundesliga.com is the AI's most important source
The analysis also shows which sources AI systems draw on most frequently when assessing fan bases. At 36 percent, editorial content is the language models' most important source group. The AI systems rely particularly often on established football and information sites, above all bundesliga.com, which accounts for 46.3 percent among the top domains.
Corporate sources follow at 24 percent as the second-largest source group. These mainly include club websites and commercial platforms from the football world, such as livefootballtickets.com (43.4 percent). Reference and data-based platforms such as statista.com (34.3 percent) and wikipedia.org (28 percent) make up eleven percent. User-generated content accounts for ten percent, institutional sources for nine percent.
Lukas von Zittwitz, founder and managing director of Twenty-Eight, puts the results in context:
"For clubs, it is becoming increasingly important to understand what picture AI systems convey of them and their fans. These answers don't arise at random but from what is publicly findable, well structured and told often enough. Anyone who only lives their fan culture without making it visible leaves the interpretation to others.
In football especially, reputation is often built on emotion: on togetherness, attitude, atmosphere and loyalty. These are soft factors that matter a great deal to fans, sponsors and public perception. Our analysis shows that these factors are now reflected in AI responses as well. For clubs, this creates an additional communication space they cannot control but can very much influence, through credible content, strong stories and a public presence that shows more than results and league positions."
About the study
For the study, 10 prompts on the likability of fans in the current 2025/26 Bundesliga season were analyzed over a one-week period (May 2 to May 8, 2026) using the AI monitoring software Peec.ai. The responses, based on 755 sources, were evaluated to determine which fan bases the AIs mention most often, what sentiment the responses show, which sources the AIs drew on most frequently and which domain type was most strongly represented. The sentiment for 1. FC Heidenheim could not be determined because the club was mentioned in too few AI responses.