The Athletic (@TheAthletic) — Twitter Score 15 out of 1000

The Athletic is a subscription-based sports journalism publication co-founded by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann that was acquired by The New York Times Company, under which it operates as a subsidiary. The Athletic's Twitter Score is 15 out of 1000 as of September 2026, ranking #65,689 among 486,860 tracked accounts.

The Athletic was co-founded in January 2016 and built its reputation around in-depth, writer-led sports coverage distributed through a paid subscription model. The New York Times Company agreed to acquire The Athletic in January 2022, with the publication continuing to operate separately as a subsidiary rather than being folded into the main newsroom.

The Athletic raised significant venture funding before its acquisition, including a Series D of $50 million led by Bedrock Capital, with participation from Emerson Collective and Powerhouse Capital, and a Series C of $40 million co-led by Founders Fund and Bedrock Capital. Earlier backers had also included Y Combinator, Comcast Ventures, Courtside Ventures, The Chernin Group, Evolution Media Capital, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Advancit, Luminari Capital, and Amasia. The Athletic has 1,628,842 followers as of September 2026 on the platform and has published 108,054 posts. The Athletic has been mentioned by 251 accounts, with 1,902 total mentions.

Who follows The Athletic on X?

The accounts that follow The Athletic include 53 founders, 17 angel investors, 20 influencers and 6 VCs, among them Gary Vaynerchuk, John Wang, DeeZe, Sriram Krishnan, Matthew Graham and Josh Ong.