Different sports are played all over the world as hobbies, careers or as a part of fitness regimes. Some sports have grown to be more popular than others, attracting billions of fans, so we compiled this list based on participation, TV viewership and rights, prominence in the media, global spread, and salaries at the top level. As the world’s, we’ve worked with athletes, teams, and organisations from almost every sport around the world to raise money through sports crowdfunding. The list we’ve compiled are the ten most popular sports in the world today.Source: Total Sportek 10. VolleyballVolleyball is as straightforward as you like. In fact, it is probably the simplicity of the game that makes it so famous among its fans. Take a trip to African countries or visit the beaches of Australia and you will find people playing this sport and you will find people playing this sport.
Football is the popular sports in the world, but my opinion cricket will be being the most popular sports, if 20 20 begin early 100 years. (from football n cricket fan, Sept 2012) you all fools stop arguing cuase sports are sports it dont need to be the best SO FROM MY ESTIMATION EVERY SPORT IS THE BEST! Top 10 Most Popular Sports. If we are going to find out the top popular sports in the World, there must be the name of football. It is widely regarded as the most popular sports in recent time considering all the options. It is most followed, most watched and most played sport in recent time being.
If you are looking for more advice on which shoes to buy for sports, check out for the latest reviews of athletic shoes. Volleyball is truly one of the most popular sports and has 200 national federations for the sport, more than any other sport on the planet. Ice HockeyIce Hockey is not only one of the most popular sports in the world but is the most popular winter sport by quite a margin. While the sport has its strongest following in Canada, USA, Russia, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, there is no doubting its global presence.The National Hockey League (NHL) is comprised of clubs from the US and Canada who’s teams are made up of players from around the world.
The league itself ranks among the five most popular on the planet as it turns an annual revenue of $4.1 billion. BoxingThe sole representative of combat sports on our list, boxing has fought tooth and nail to mix it with the most popular sports year-on-year. Boxing is a major sport in countries across every single continent and the sheer volume of talent can particularly be seen during the Olympic Games.Boxing’s popularity has steadily risen, its growth earmarked by the $400m revenue generated by Mayweather v Pacquiao in 2015 and the record 90,000 sell-out attendance at the Joshua v Klitschko fight at Wembley in 2017. Formula 1With 20 Grand Prix every year in 20 different countries, Formula 1 is one of the most global and most popular sports and has an annual TV audience of over 500 million.According to, the yearly revenue is concerned Formula 1 generate somewhere between $1.5 to $2 billion a year. Which is soundly distributed among 10 f1 teams who in return spend between $100 million to $500 million a season on elite level motor engineers, research & development and of course on driver salaries.
RugbyRugby is played in the majority of countries around the world, while it is strongest on in the Southern Hemisphere, in the UK, and in Ireland. As one of the most popular sports in the world, Rugby boasts the second most lucrative and most attended sporting World Cup of all-time with the 2015 Rugby World Cup selling 2.47 million tickets and generating £250m in revenue.
In addition, 120 million tuned into the tournament’s final and #rwc2015 was used on average once every two seconds during the tournament’s entirety. AthleticsTruly one of the most popular sports around the world, athletics represents several disciplines including running, high jump and long jump, as well as other track and field events.Athletics has the flagship events of each Olympics and this was proven as the 2012 100-metre final was the most watched single Olympic event in the Games’ history with over 1 billion television viewers tuning in from across the globe.
TennisWith an average of 45 countries represented in top 100 tennis ranking in both the men’s and women’s game, tennis is without question among the world’s most popular sports. Furthermore, players from both the men’s and women’s game, from 30 different countries, have won at least one grand slam, making it a unique record in sport.The best and tennis players throughout historyOver 1 billion people tuned in at some point during Wimbledon 2014, 2015 and 2016, while an average of over 17 million tunes into the UK-only BBC One channel for the tournament’s men’s final. With an estimated 2 billion followers, cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world. The Twenty20 league is the third most-viewed sporting event behind the FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup.Women’s cricket is growing rapidly, which shows the spread of the sport’s support worldwide. The ICC (International Cricket Council) has increased television coverage and prize money for women’s competitions and female players are now paid 50% more than they did 5 years ago.
The popularity of sports around the world are growing rapidly due to the consistent increase in television rights. With roughly 7 billion people in the world, it’s very difficult to map which are the most popular – for example, table tennis is most popular in Asia, while the NFL’s following is predominately based in the U.S.At, we help to raise money for athletes and teams from every sport around the world, but we’ve always wondered which are the most popular.So, with the help of 2016’s media ratings, here’s an estimated guide to the Top 10 most watched sports in the world.Source: Sport Stardom 10. NFLFans: 400mOutside of the U.S., this sport has limited following.
However, within the continent, there is such a following of the NFL that the native fans have been able to launch it into this list with an estimated 400 million fans. BasketballFans: 400mWith over 400 million fans around the world, basketball is part of the fabric of the American population, having been established in America in the late 19th century.However, it has been far more successful in spreading around the world than its American Football counterpart. GolfFans: 450mGolf can be both a surprising entry and an obvious one, depending on your outlook. First off, this is one of the oldest sports in this list having been established in the 13th Century in Scotland, and it has successfully spread around the world so that it now has a total of 450 million fans across Europe, Asia, and America. This would account for its vast reach.However, in comparison to the other sports in this list, it doesn’t involve any direct competition as there is no face to face challenge or any adrenalin-pumping action, it instead focuses on patience and personal skill. BaseballFans: 500mWith 500 million fans, baseball is another American-led sport. The first league for the sport was created all the way back in 1876 and the sport has been growing since.In fact, the reason it has outdone its fellow American sports in media ratings is due to the sport’s ever-growing popularity in Japan.
The Japanese people’s love for the game has seen it rank respectively on our list. Table TennisFans: 850mAs mainstream sport goes, table tennis is relatively new. It started with a dominance in China about a century ago, eventually spreading to the rest of mainland Asia as well. However, it has now reached the rest of the world, which accounts for its incredible popularity with 850 million fans. One of the reasons this game is so popular is that the rules are fairly easy to pick up, is reasonable and few, and take up hardly any space at all.5.
VolleyballFans: 900mVolleyball is an extremely simple game with little equipment and few rules. All you need is a ball and a net. Furthermore, the popularity of this sport has been evenly distributed around the world which accounts to its fan base of 900 million around the world. It was introduced in the Olympic Games back in 1964 and its beach variation was a real kickstarter for its rapid growth in popularity around the world.4. TennisFans: 1bnThis is one of the longest standing and most reputable sports out there with a fan base of over 1 billion people! It has been around since the early 14th century, it is said that King Louis X of France had made for himself an indoor tennis court.With legendary athletes like Sampras, Agassi, Nadal and Federer, tennis has appealed to the masses and grown exponentially in popularity since the 90s and noughties and making it one of the most watched sports globally. Field HockeyFans: 2.2bnThis game has been around since the 3rd Century BC, having been established in Europe and Asia as well.
While India and Pakistan dominated this sport during the first half of the 20th century, the Netherlands and Australia quickly took over that sport.According to recent statistics, Field Hockey has currently got a fan following of over 2.2 billion people from across Europe, Asia, and Africa. CricketFans: 2.5bnCricket’s popularity is in large part because of the British Empire and the East India Company, and their fervent determination to spread their culture across the world in their hopes of bringing ‘civilization’ to the different nations.As terrible as the intent may have been, this has grown to be a vastly popular sport in the UK, Asia, Australia and Africa – basically the British Colonies of old. It has a fan following of 2.5 billion people and is the second most watched sport in the world. SoccerFans: 3.5 bnWith 3.5 billion fans around the world, soccer is the one sport that pretty much the whole world can agree upon can be claimed the most watched sports in the world.
With its combination of adrenaline-pumping excitement, man-on-man aggression, tough competition, it’s really no wonder it comes on top.Soccer is worth astronomical sums of money to different leagues around the world through television rights as its leagues boast more TV viewers than any other sports leagues, and its flagship event, the World Cup, outshines every other major event without question. What do you think of this list? Do you agree with our list of most watched sports, or do you think there are sports missing? Let us know.PledgeSports is a revolutionary crowdfunding & sponsorship platform dedicated to sport.Are you or someone you know raising money for sport? If so, get in touch with us via, or visit and hit “Create A Campaign” to start raising money today!
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