We don't want to preach about the role sports play in our lives. Whether you're a hobby player of any sports or you play at the elite level, there are incredible benefits to play that stretch much beyond just physical health. In this article, we're going to rank some of the most popular sports in the world.
How do we define popular? Well, we've used a variety of metrics to rank sports by their popularity. In addition to global viewership (via TV or the Web), we've also considered social media presence, the number of competitive leagues for the sport across the globe, how affluent the top athletes in a given sport are, male vs. female participation and what sort of coverage the sport gets in print media amongst other things.
At this time, eSports hasn't made the top rankings yet but there is a growing trend in media consumption with non-traditional games like E-sports, casino games and others starting to take viewership. Who would believe that thousands of people are happy to watch players gamble online and play online slots, normally with free spins. Times have changed and could this be the start of a dystopian future?
Football Comes in at First
If you might not be surprised to learn that the most popular sport in the world, measured across a multitude of metrics is football (Soccer to the Americans).Football is the most popular sport in the world, despite its lack of popularity in the United States. In almost all of Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East, Central America, and Asia, soccer reigns supreme. There are around 3.5 billion soccer enthusiasts and 250 million players globally, spread over 200 nations.It's no wonder that Football gets credited for being the most universal language on the planet.
The World Cup, which takes place every four years, is the most important competition in football. The FIFA World Cup 2018 was viewed by over 3.2 billion people, according to sources. It is without a doubt the most watched sporting event on the planet by a long mile. Football superstars: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar are all amongst the top 5 highest paid athletes in the world.
Cricket: The Gentleman's Game is Loved by Billions
Even though Cricket does not have the same kind of universality as soccer, it still manages to place second in the list of the world's most popular sports. Cricket's high popularity ranking can largely be attributed to the fact that it is very popular in some of the most populated countries in the world, such as India and that makes up for its lack of popularity in the United States and Europe (although it is picking up in these regions too in recent years).Cricket has around 2 to 3 billion supporters worldwide, making it the second most popular sport on the planet.
In India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies, South Africa, and Australia, cricket is the most popular sport. Across the globe, 2.2 billion people watched the Cricket World Cup 2015 on television.
Basketball is Loved, Not Just by the United States
When we think of basketball, pictures of the NBA is probably what comes to mind and this is fair given it's the most popular and lucrative basketball league in the world. However, what you may not know is that Basketball also has a massive fan base in countries like China, Canada, Japan and the Philippines. Across these regions, it is estimated that basketball has a fan following of nearly 2 – 3 billion people.The NBA sold its 9-year TV rights agreement for a record $24 billion in 2016. This amounts to almost $2.6 billion every year. Basketball players are among the top well-compensated athletes in the planet. The NBA's average pay is more over $3 million.
Hockey takes 4th Place, But there's a Catch
Hockey is said to have more than 2 billion fans worldwide. However, this number is the sum of field hockey fans + ice hockey fans which are technically two different sports in their own rights. With the two disciplines of hockey combined, we're looking at established fan bases in more than 80 different countries around the world. Field hockey in terms of TV viewership is popular in India, Pakistan, the UK, Germany, Malaysia and Netherlands. On the other hand, Ice Hockey is popular in the US and Canada.The most popular Ice Hockey competition/league in the world is the NHL. The salary of an Average NHL player is just over $3 million per year.
Tennis has a Billion Fans Around the World
Tennis isn't exactly a team sport like the other four sports we've covered thus far. Technically though, doubles tennis matches are two teams (of two individuals each) facing off. Otherwise, it is usually one individual player playing another, but this does not make it any less exciting. Tennis has fans across the world, particularly in Europe, Asia, North America and South America. More than 400 million people across the world watch the four grand slams, the main tennis tournaments.On Instagram, some of the most popular tennis stars are Serena Williams, Rafeal Nadal and Roger Federer with 11.9 million, 8.4 million and 7.1 million followers respectively.
