Changzhou: As the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U23 Championship China 2018 prepares to head into the quarter-final stage, social media numbers on two of the AFC’s official platforms have already outstripped the figures recorded at the tournament’s entire 2016 edition.

Some 24 games have been played so far across four venues in China, and interaction is now at an all-time AFC U23 Championship high on the AFC’s Facebook and Instagram official accounts.

With Wednesday’s final games in Group D bring the competition’s group stage to a close, the AFC’s Facebook page (@theafcdotcom) has registered an impressive reach of 11.83 million, compared to 5.4 million for the entire AFC U23 Championship Qatar 2016, which was also a qualifying tournament for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, the AFC’s Instagram account (@theafchub) has witnessed a similarly impressive growth, with a healthy 367,845 Likes as opposed to 61,700 just two years ago.

AFC General Secretary, Dato' Windsor John said: “Ensuring football remains the number one sport in Asia is one of the AFC's Visions and to do that we must continue to engage directly and intelligently with the millions of football fans on this Continent. Social media is a key area of engagement and growth for the AFC and with initiatives like broadcasting the AFC Cup last season in India on Facebook Live with have shown we are connecting with the fans in the region.”

The AFC U23 Championship China 2018 is scheduled to conclude on January 27 with the final at Changzhou’s Olympic Sports Center.