Americans Love the NFL, But Change Is Looming

Source: Statista

While Baseball is often referred to as “America’s favorite pastime”, the NFL has long surpassed the MLB as the nation’s favorite professional sports league. For several reasons, including first and foremost its better suitability for television, football flew by baseball as Americans’ favorite sport to watch in the 1960s and hasn’t looked back since. In recent years, baseball has even been surpassed by basketball, as younger audiences prefer the action-packed, star-studded NBA over what many young viewers consider the dragging affair of a three-hour baseball game.

According to recent findings from Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, the NFL remains the number 1 among major professional sports leagues in the U.S., at least for now. While 52 percent of self-declared sports fans follow the National Football League, compared to 42 percent for the NBA and 31 percent who follow the MLB, looking at the youngest group of respondents reveals a worrying trend for NFL executives. Among 16- to 25-year-olds, the NFL only plays second fiddle to the NBA, with just 33 percent of young sports fans following the league. The NBA reaches 40 percent of Gen X fans, who are overall less likely to follow any professional sports leagues than their older compatriots.

The Top 10 Most Popular Sports in The World Are?

Sportsshow.net is “a dedicated sports blog that covers latest and trending top 10 lists, sports news, schedules, rankings and the latest happenings from the sports world.”

They recently listed the top 10 most ‘popular’ sports in the world, and the results might surprise you. They explain “it is important to know exactly what we mean by most popular sports.”

adding:

“The word “popular” could mean “most-watched sports,” “most played sports,” or “most revenue-generating sports”. But in all honesty, it would be unfair to rank the sports by popularity, if we take just one or two criteria. Therefore, we have decided to use 15 different criteria in order to rank the most popular sports in the world.”

Sportsshow.net used a long list to rank the sports including:

  • Global Fan Base and Audience
  • Viewership on TV
  • TV Rights Deals
  • Popularity on Internet
  • Presence on Social Media
  • Number of Professional Leagues in the World
  • Average Salary of Athletes in the Top Leagues
  • Sponsorship Deals
  • Number of Countries in Which the Sport is Popular
  • Biggest Competition
  • Relevancy Throughout the Year
  • Gender Equality
  • Access to the General Public
  • Number of Amateur Players in The World
  • The prominence of the sport in sports headlines on print and electronic media

Here is the list, in order – let us know what you think!. For full details click here.

1. Soccer/Association Football
2. Cricket
3. Basketball
4. Field Hockey
5. Tennis
6. Volleyball
7. Table Tennis
8. Baseball
9. Americal Football/Rugby
10. Golf