Comunidades digitales y movimientos de masas en el mundial de desayunos de Ibai

Abstract

This article analyzes the Breakfast World Cup organized by streamer Ibai Llanos as a mass phenomenon on social media. Through a quantitative, cross-sectional study of Ibai Llanos’s profiles on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, the research demonstrates a clear dominance of TikTok in terms of reach and virality, with some posts exceeding 100 million views. Meanwhile, Instagram stands out for its ability to generate significant engagement, and YouTube for its Shorts format. The results reveal that interaction is not uniform but instead increases progressively toward the final stages of the tournament, reaching critical peaks of emotional mobilization in matchups with high nationalist intensity, such as the Ecuador vs. Peru quarterfinal clash. This confirms that these sportainment events function as powerful catalysts for digital communities, where the audience ceases to be mere spectators and becomes active prosumers of a global competitive narrative. Therefore, this digital phenomenon goes beyond entertainment, fostering community, collective identity, and active participation through competitive narratives and transmedia strategies tailored to each platform. Furthermore, it shows that the audience acts as an active contemporary digital agent, as everyday elements acquire symbolic value and dynamics of emotion and belonging are activated with both communicative and critical implications.