1. Soccer / Association Football – 3.5 Billion Followers
Association football, commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world’s most popular sport. The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The objective of the game is to score by using any part of the body besides the arms and hands to get the football into the opposing goal.
The goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play, and then only in their penalty area. And now, it also holds its place among the richest sports in the world in 2022. Here is how Soccer ranks on different criteria that we have set to rank the sports.
Global Fan Base and Audience: Soccer enjoys the most number of fans in almost all regions of the world. The number of people who follow the sport regularly and watch its global as well as regional competitions is unmatched.
Viewership on TV:When it comes to TV viewership, soccer is definitely the king. In order to give you some idea of the popularity of the sport, whenever there is a regional or global international competition, billions of football fans around the world are hooked to their TV screens. The same is the case with club competitions and major leagues around the world.
TV Rights Deals: Being the most-watched sports in the world, soccer lands the most lucrative TV Rights Deals for FIFA, the global body of the sport. To give you some idea, FIFA has already secured more than $1.85 Billion for the World Cup 2018 and World Cup 2022 TV rights.
Popularity on the Internet: The popularity of soccer on the Internet is quite evident. Every major search engines see hundreds of millions of searches related to the sport, different teams, and different athletes of the sport.
2. Cricket – 2.5 Billion Followers
You may have already known that cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on a field, at the center of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. The two competing teams take turns to bat, attempting to score runs. While one team is batting, the other team fields. Each turn is known as an innings.
Cricket has three different formats i.e. Test, ODI, and T20. After the introduction of the T20 format, the popularity of cricket has been increasing drastically. Cricket is very popular in India, Pakistan, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe.
Global Fan Base and Audience: The fan base of Cricket is limited to some countries. It is not a major sport in the US, most of Europe, and Africa. However, some of the biggest countries in the world play this sport. Overall, with about 2 to 3 billion fans, cricket has the 2nd highest number of fans in the world.
Viewership on TV: Cricket is the most-watched sport in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, and Australia. It is one of the most-watched sports in the UK. About 2.2 Billion people from around the world watched the Cricket World Cup 2015 on their televisions.
TV Rights Deals: ICC which is the global body for world cricket grosses hundreds of millions of dollars for the TV rights deals of its major tournaments like the ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup (50 Overs), and ICC Champions Trophy. The TV rights for the bilateral series among different countries are also worth hundreds of millions of dollars in many cases.
Popularity on the Internet: Cricket has seen increased popularity on the Internet over the years. The number of cricket-related searches is increasing day by day. This is partly due to the fact that more and more people are getting access to the Internet in developing countries where cricket is famous, for example in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. Another reason for the growing popularity of cricket is the fact that the game itself becomes popular in other parts of the world.
3. Basketball – 2.2 Billion Followers
Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.0 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end. A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play.
A field goal scores two points for the shooting team if a player is touching or is closer to the basket than the three-point line, and three points if the player is behind the three-point line. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. Basketball is The 3rd Most Played and Watched Sport in the World.
Global Fan Base and Audience: The number of Basketball fans ranges from 2 to 3 billion. Most of the fans are concentrated in the US, Canada, China, Japan, and the Philippines.
Viewership on TV: Basketball enjoys great TV viewership in the US. NBA the national Basketball league of the US is the most popular league in the world, and it is watched and followed by millions of fans in the US as well as outside the US.
TV Rights Deals: The TV rights deals for the bigger leagues of the sport can reach billions of dollars. In 2016, the NBA sold the TV rights deal for a staggering $24 billion for 9 years. This comes down to about $2.6 Billion per year. Pretty impressive, right?
Popularity on the Internet: When it comes to Internet searches, Basketball players are among the most searched athletes in the world. They are highly searched in the US, China, and other basketball-playing countries, like Canada, Japan, and the Philippines.
4. Hockey – 2 Billion Followers
It is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent’s goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport, typically field hockey or ice hockey, is generally referred to as hockey. Both forms of hockey are popular in the world.
Field Hockey is the National game of Pakistan as well as India. On the other hand, Ice Hockey is popular in Europe especially in Canada, the USA, Latvia, and Sweden. The above-mentioned number of fans are for both forms of hockey.
Global Fan Base and Audience: As mentioned above, hockey has more than 2 billion fans in the world. These fans include both the fans of field hockey and ice hockey.
Viewership on TV: The TV viewership of hockey is different in different regions. In Pakistan, India, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Malaysia, and the Netherlands, field hockey enjoys a moderate level of TV viewership. The same is the case with Ice Hockey, only the countries are different. Ice Hockey is also widely watched in the US and Canada.
TV Rights Deals: Hockey leagues around the world, including field hockey leagues and ice hockey leagues, get fairly decent TV rights deals. The numbers are nowhere close to some other popular sports like football and cricket, but still, they are decent enough.
Popularity on the Internet: Hockey enjoys a moderate level of popularity on the Internet. The number of hockey-related searches varies by country and by season.
5. Tennis – 1 Billion Followers
Tennis is a sport that people usually play individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung with a cord to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over or around a net and into the opponent’s court. The object of the game is to play the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a good return.
Global Fan Base and Audience: Tennis has a pretty good fan base all over the world. Although, it is more popular in developed countries than in developing countries. Tennis superstars like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are known widely around the world and have hundreds of millions of fans throughout the world.
Viewership on TV: The major competitions of Tennis, the four grand slams, are watched by more than 400 million people around the world.
TV Rights Deals: The TV rights deals for Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open, and the US Open as well as for other major tennis events around the world can gross millions of dollars in revenue.
Popularity on the Internet: Tennis enjoys huge popularity on the Internet. Perhaps it is the 3rd most popular sport on the internet after football and cricket.
6. Volleyball – 900 Million Followers
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team’s court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summer Olympic Games since 1964.
Global Fan Base and Audience: Volleyball enjoys a reasonable number of fans in almost all the countries of the world.
Viewership on TV: The viewership of the sport on TV is limited to major competitions. The Volleyball event at the Olympics is widely followed by fans around the world.
TV Rights Deals: TV rights deals for Volleyball events are not huge.
Popularity on the Internet: The sport has a moderate level of popularity on the internet.
7. Table Tennis – 850 Million Followers
Table tennis, also known as ping pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net. Except for the initial serve, players must allow a ball played towards them only one bounce on their side of the table and must return it so that it bounces on the opposite side.
Viewership on TV: The viewership of table tennis on TV is limited to only the Olympics and other major international events.
TV Rights Deals: The TV rights deals for table tennis championships and tournaments around the world are not that impressive. However, the numbers are reasonable considering the fact that it is primarily a sport that is taken more as a hobby than a professional sport.
Popularity on the Internet: The internet popularity of Table Tennis is quite mild. The searches related to the game peak up during the Olympics and other major competitions and tournaments.
8. Baseball – 500 Million Followers
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players who take turns batting and fielding. The offense attempts to score more runs than its opponent by hitting a ball thrown by the pitcher with a bat and moving counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate. A run is scored when the runner advances around the bases and returns to home plate.
Global Fan Base and Audience: Baseball enjoys a huge number of fans in the US, Canada, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic.
Viewership on TV: The sport is widely watched in the US, Cuba, and Japan. The viewership is not that good in other countries of the world.
TV Rights Deals: The TV rights deals for MLB in the US and the Nippon League in Japan reaches hundreds of millions of dollars.
Popularity on the Internet: The sport is quite popular on the Internet in the countries where it is commonly played. The searches on Google in the US related to this sport are also pretty high.
9. Rugby – 410 Million Followers
Rugby is widely played in France and has a strong tradition in the people of Basque, Occitan, and Catalan areas along the border regions between Spain and France. The game is very popular in South Africa, having been introduced by English-speaking settlers in the 19th century. British colonists also brought the game with them to Australia and New Zealand, where the game is widely played. It has spread thence too much of Polynesia, having particularly strong followings in Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga
Global Fan Base and Audience: Rugby has a strong fan base in Australia, England, France, and New Zealand. There are more than 390 million fans of the sport in these countries. Other countries also have a limited number of fans of Rugby.
Viewership on TV: The TV viewership of Rugby is pretty good in the Rugby playing nations. In other countries it is negligible.
TV Rights Deals: The TV rights deals for Rugby tournaments are not as big as Football, Cricket, or Tennis, but they are still quite costly.
Popularity on the Internet: The sport is moderately popular on the Internet and enjoys a high level of searches during the rugby world cup, especially in the participating nations.
10. American Football – 410 Million Followers
American football (known as football in the United States and gridiron in some other countries) is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field 120 yards long and 53.3 yards wide, with goalposts at each end.
The offense attempts to advance an oval ball (the football) down the field by running with it or passing it. They must advance it at least ten yards in four downs to receive a new set of four downs and continue the drive; if not, they turn over the ball to the opposing team.
Global Fan Base and Audience: Being a sport that is mostly played in the US, the fan base of American Football is concentrated in the US. It is highly popular in the United States.
Viewership on TV: American Football is one of the most-watched sports in the US. Elsewhere, it does not enjoy good levels of viewership.
TV Rights Deals: NFL, National Football League in the US, is the most popular sports league in the world. NFL TV rights are sold in billions of dollars per year.
Popularity on the Internet: NFL is quite popular on the Internet in the US. Google records a very high level of American Football related searches in the US. Elsewhere, the popularity of the sport is negligible.
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