What are the most popular sports in the world? This question can give many different answers, depending on who you ask and how you count.
The website statista.com recently did a thorough compilation, creating a list based on the following 13 criteria:
- Global availability / number of practitioners
- Global physical audience
- Global viewing figures
- Number of professional leagues
- Television rights agreement
- Sponsorship agreement for practitioners
- Average salary in top divisions
- Largest competition/championship (number of nations represented)
- Social media presence
- Number of mentions in the media
- Relevance during the year
- Regional dominance
- Gender equality
Based on this assessment, the following 10 sports are the most popular in the world:
10.Volleyball
Volleyball is perhaps somewhat surprisingly the tenth most popular sport in the world. Among other things, the sport has more international federations (more than 200) than any other sport.
9. Ice hockey
Ice hockey is the largest winter sport in the world without competition. The most famous nations on the world stage are Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Czech Republic. In addition, the North American League NHL is one of the most popular in the world, regardless of the sport.
8. Boxing
On the eighth place we find the only martial arts on the list. Boxing is very popular all over the world and especially in populous countries like the USA, Mexico, Great Britain, Russia and Japan. In addition, the prize money for the best practitioners is HUGE. For example, ask Floyd Mayweather Jr...
7. Formula 1
Around 550 million people take part in one of the competitions of the Formula 1 World Championship every year, which takes place between March and November. This makes F1 by far the most popular motor sport in the world.
6. Rugby
Rugby is a very good sport in countries like Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In addition, the Rugby World Cup is the second most popular World Cup in the world, only the kind of soccer equivalent.
5. Athletics
Athletics is certainly not just one sport, but a collection of different sports. However, since they are usually all performed at the same competition, it is still counted as ONE sport. Track and field is not only by far the most popular competition during the Summer Olympics, but it is also one of the most equal sports in the world with almost as many male and female athletes.
4. Tennis
Tennis has an estimated 1 billion fans worldwide. The sport is played all over the world, but is the largest in Europe, Asia, and North and South America. With this in mind, it is impressive to say the least how many successful tennis players Sweden has produced over the years.
3. Cricket
For us Germans, it may seem strange that cricket is the third most popular sport in the world. But it is so. The main reason is that cricket is mainly practiced and followed in extremely populous countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The sport is also popular in England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean.
2. Basketball
Basketball is thus the second most popular sport in the world. The greatest interest is in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and the Philippines. The North American NBA Basketball League is also the most popular sport in the world - all categories.
1. Soccer
By far the most popular sport in the world is, not unexpectedly, soccer. "The Beautiful Game" attracts 3.5 billion fans around the world in round slangs and is also one of the few sports that are widely played on all continents of the world.