The marching band plays a massive part in the college football gameday experience, so we've looked at which university has the most popular marching band.
The marching band plays a massive part in the college football gameday experience and thanks to new research by online casino Betway, we now know which groups are the most popular of them all.
Extensive social media data – including Instagram follower count, TikTok follower count and fan engagement percentages – was indexed to create a definitive table of North America’s favourite marching bands which we can now reveal:
Most popular marching bands in the US:
Leading the charge is the Ohio State University Marching Band. With a considerable Instagram following of 182,000 plus a TikTok fanbase of 404,000, they by far boast the largest social media following of any US college campus. The band is one of the only all-brass and percussion college bands in the US and is considered the largest of its type in the world.
In second place, and with the best fan engagement rate, is the University Of Minnesota Marching Band. The Minnesota band has a total following of 17,910 and an engagement rate of 34.53%, earning them an outstanding popularity score of 107.45%.
The Varsity Marching Band of Pittsburgh completes the top three. The band has a popularity score of 67.77%, largely thanks to their excellent engagement rate of 23.25% which dwarfs that of various bands with bigger social media follower counts. The band is more than 100 years old, having delivered its first home performance in April of 1922.
The BYU Cougar Marching Band are in the highest position of the bands without a TikTok account. Despite having no presence on the short-video platform, their highly engaged 3000 Instagram followers helped propel them into fourth position overall.
The University of Michigan Marching Band completes the top five with a popularity score of 44.17% and a total following of 108,300! The famous band was formed by students in 1896 and is going from strength under the guidance of new director Jason Fettig. They do, however, have the lowest engagement rate of any college band on the list with just 1.29% of their 45,700 Instagram followers interacting with their content at regular intervals.
The top 20 most popular marching bands are:
Band | Total following | Fan Engagement Rate | Popularity Score (%) |
Ohio State University Marching Band | 586,000 | 4.84% | 214.02% |
University of Minnesota Marching Band | 17910 | 34.53% | 107.45% |
Varsity Marching Band Pittsburgh | 2167 | 23.25% | 67.77% |
BYU Cougar Marching Band | 3003 | 17.60% | 52.40% |
University of Michigan Marching Band | 108300 | 1.29% | 44.17% |
University of Georgia Redcoat Band | 67700 | 5.05% | 41.77% |
NMU Wildcat Marching Band | 733 | 13.15% | 38.26% |
Marching Illini | 37,300 | 8.45% | 37.60% |
Boston College Marching Band | 2923 | 12.14% | 36.30% |
Penn State Blue Band | 42000 | 5.67% | 35.53% |
University of Alabama Million Dollar Band | 51900 | 1.68% | 33.22% |
Syracuse University Marching Band | 3008 | 10.06% | 30.57% |
California Marching Band (Berkeley) | 26066 | 7.48% | 29.97% |
University of Missouri “Marching Mizzou” | 22447 | 6.25% | 28.89% |
University of Arizona “Pride of Arizona” Marching Band | 6421 | 8.77% | 28.71% |
University of Wisconsin “Badger Band” | 10500 | 7.98% | 28.67% |
University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band | 9410 | 8.05% | 28.27% |
University of Washington Husky Marching Band | 8330 | 8.20% | 27.74% |
University Of Southern California Trojan Marching Band | 39200 | 2.13% | 27.53% |
Canada’s most popular marching bands
Marching bands play a unique and vibrant role in Canadian musical culture, blending tradition, school spirit, and performance excellence. Based on online popularity, the SFU Pipe Band leads in engagement, boasting a strong Instagram and TikTok following with a high engagement rate of 9.77%. However, the Royal Military College of Canada Bands (RMC Bands) holds the highest total following (9,236) despite lacking a TikTok presence, emphasising its historical and institutional significance.
Band | Total Following | Fan Eng. Rate | Popularity Score |
SFU Pipe Band | 3221 | 9.77% | 158.01% |
Royal Military College of Canada Bands | 9236 | 5.67% | 101.20% |
Red and Gold Drumline of Université Laval (Rouge Et Or Drumline) | 112 | 18.81% | 100.63% |
Queen’s Bands | 1320 | 8.06% | 46.20% |
Thunderbird Marching Band (Uni of British Columbia, Vancouver) | 592 | 9.29% | 39.54% |
Drumline des Carabins | 83 | 10.32% | 36.17% |
Western Mustang Band | 1350 | 5.51% | 27.68% |
McGill Fight Band | 473 | 7.11% | 20.55% |
University of Alberta Marching Band | 382 | 5.75% | 8.34% |
Interestingly, the Red and Gold Drumline of Université Laval has the highest engagement rate (18.81%), showing that even smaller groups can foster highly dedicated fan bases. Queen’s Bands and the Thunderbird Marching Band follow, demonstrating the strong presence of university-affiliated marching ensembles in Canada.
So, there you have it, those are the some of the most popular marching bands in the US and Canada. Did your university make the cut, are you interested in seeking more rankings around other popular college football and mainstream football traditions? If so, then head over to the Betway website today!
Methodology
Our research combined desk research to compile a datasheet of America’s most prominent college marching bands.
The Instagram and TikTok follower count for each of these college bands was then manually added to our index.
Next, we found the Instagram engagement rate for each college marching band using the SocialBlade social insights tool. This percentage represents an account’s number of engagements divided by its total following multiplied by 100 to create the final score.
‘Total follower count’ and ‘engagement rate’ were then multiplied together to deliver scores for each college. These were further indexed to deliver easily comprehended ‘Popularity Score’ percentages for readers to digest.
