We all have our favorite sports, but which sports are the most popular around the world? The problem is coming up with a clear defining meaning for popular - by popular do we mean most watched, the most played, or the sport with the most passionate fans! This method uses the number of visitors to various sports websites around the world, essentially representing the number of fans who follow the sport.
The list below is based on the data from mostpopularsport.net website (updated in 2020). The list order takes into account the population of countries and are based on general surveys/discussions on the internet.
The top-ranked sport is Association football, as is the case in most similar lists. There is also not too many who disagree that cricket and basketball are the next two most popular sports around the world. Not everyone will agree with the rest of the list, add your view to the comments below.
- Soccer / Association Football
- Cricket
- Basketball
- Tennis
- Baseball
- Table Tennis
- Golf
- Volleyball
- Badminton
- Rugby
On the same website, there are top sports lists for each country, based on the estimated number of fans using a very interesting method to measure popularity. The lists are based on the results of website visitor traffic analysis (using the Alexa traffic rank) of over 300 sports websites, which reflect which sports the internet users in the particular country are most interested in. Regional popularity gives an insight into where the fan base is located around the world. See also a list based on a similar principle - website traffic to sports pages on Wikipedia and Google Search Sports Terms.