Belfast Giants have been ranked Britain’s best ice hockey team for their online and attendance following.

The Northern Irish side are 19th place across Europe for their social media following of over 140,000 across a variety of platforms.

Plus they are 74th in attendance with 150,000+ fans watching the team in action during 2017/18 season at The SSE Arena.

The figures were published by Result Sports and IIHF as the Giants matched up alongside Europe's finest including teams from Russia, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.

The Giants are ranked 19th for their overall presence online of 140,378 followers, 6th on Twitter (49,320), 13th on Instagram (22,870) and 17th on Facebook (61,561).

The Giants rank 74th in the IIHF's annual attendance study of European league hockey and are joined in the Top 100 by EIHL rivals, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers.

Switzerland leads the European national leagues in league attendance with Russia's Kontinental Hockey League in second place. 

The German DEL occupy third followed by the Swedish Hockey League, the Czech Extraliga and the Finnish Liiga. The Elite League take eighth place ahead of Slovakia, Norway and France.

The top 100 club teams include teams from 15 different countries: Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

PHOTO: Belfast Giants