The top publishers on Facebook in France in 2023

Every month we look at the publishers that had the most success on Facebook in the US and UK, and while publishers in these locations receive millions of engagements to content on the platform each month, Facebook’s popularity in Europe should not be ignored. 

In fact, as of 2022 the number of active users on Facebook in Europe was over 400 million, which is over double the amount of users in the US and UK combined. For this reason, we want to widen our search to include more of our European neighbors, starting with France. 

The top publishers on Facebook in 2023 in France

So far this year, there have been three dominant websites in France — BFMTV, Actu, and  Franceinfo. The obvious leader and only publisher to earn over 20 million engagements to its content was BFMTV, the country’s most-watched cable news channel. With its global reach and coverage of national and international news, sports, politics, and entertainment, BFMTV has established itself as the go-to source for the French public. 

In terms of what drove success for the top publisher, BFMTV did have one stand out article that captured more attention than others. In January, a story about the popular PSG footballer Kylian Mbappé attending a Brooklyn Nets and San Antonio Spurs basketball game earned over 104k engagements. It was said that the French striker received a standing ovation from the crowd. 

Actu and Franceinfo also had a variety of stories that earned them the second and third spots in our rankings. Actu sparked interest with a story about a young man’s journey becoming a ski and swimming champion all over the world (66k), and Franceinfo generated 217k engagements to an article about a new device that will make it safer for pedestrians to cross the street. Interestingly enough, Franceinfo saw higher engagement to more of its articles than the other two publishers, however, its overall article count was much lower.

The top pages on Facebook in 2023 in France

We also looked at the Facebook pages in France that have seen the most public interest this year, and at first glance, it becomes clear that sport is one of the most important topics in the country. Football pages (or soccer for the Americans) made up nine of the top 10 pages in France. 

Le Meilleur du Football (the best of football) humbled the competition and easily took the top spot with over 65 million engagements. The page grabbed the interest of fans with posts about players retiring from the French national team, and a friendly match between PSG and Riyadh.

PSG’s page took the second spot, and while it’s not completely surprising considering they are the most successful football club in France, the page still received a notable amount of engagement, totaling 36 million since the start of the year. 

The third spot was taken by the official page of Karim Benzema, another popular French footballer who plays for a Spanish football club. His page saw over 24 million engagements, with several of his posts highlighting winning moments.

To read more about the top publishers on Facebook, check out our March rankings here.