Taylor Swift’s attendance at last Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game set the internet on fire, and launched her presumed love interest Travis Kelce into newfound stardom with US and global audiences.
As of Monday September 25th, Travis Kelce was 200.45 times more in-demand than the average talent with US audiences, a 17% jump compared to the previous day. This is the highest level of demand Parrot Analytics has tracked for him, dating back to 2019.
This makes Kelce by far the most popular sports figure in the US, after leapfrogging Deion Sanders (131.6x), whose tenure at Colorado has been the biggest sports story of the past month.
Furthermore, Kelce was the sixth most in-demand talent across all professions with US audiences, trailing only Elon Musk (203.19x), K-Pop group BTS (239.67x), musicians Beyonce (206.21x), Doja Cat (226.61x), and - of course - Taylor Swift (423.35x). Swift has been the most in-demand talent with US audiences every day since May 27, 2023, roughly around the same time she commenced her record-breaking Eras tour.
American football has limited appeal internationally, but the Swift connection has significantly increased Kelce’s global profile. The NFL star jumped from 29.59x on Sunday to 54.30x on Monday, a 83.5% daily increase in global talent demand, making him one of the 100 most in-demand talents worldwide that day.
This sharp increase in audience demand for Travis Kelce coincided with the Bears vs. Chiefs game — a blowout that audiences otherwise may have turned off at halftime — becoming the most watched NFL game of the weekend, as well as a reported 400% increase in jersey sales for the tight end.
Travis Kelce has been one of the most prominent NFL players for years, featuring in several national ad campaigns and hosting a popular podcast with his brother Jason of the Philadelphia Eagles.
But the data shows Kelce’s association with Swift is set to rocket him into newfound levels of audience demand and mainstream stardom, which should lead to increased ratings for Chiefs games, and higher sales for anything he is promoting.
