Germany Sports – The Most Popular Sports in Germany

The Most Popular German Sports

Find below Germany national sports, ranked by popularity:

So there you have it, the list of the main sports in Germany! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in Germany.

What is the National Sport of Germany?

The national sport of Germany is Football. Nothing comes close to football in Germany. Not only do all Germans love watching the sport, but the national football association, the Deutscher Fussball Bund, is the single largest sports federation in the world, with 7 million members.

Learn More About Germany Popular Sports

Germany is the most populous country in the European Union, and it is bordered by Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Its capital city is Berlin, which counts more than 3,664,000 inhabitants (but more than 6,144,000 if you include the metropolitan area!).

An interesting part of the country that I wanted to tackle is its most popular sports. In light of that, I have listed all Germany popular sports, and I hope you will love them:

Football

The most popular sport in Germany is by far and away football, like in most countries worldwide. In fact, German people are extremely involved in the development of football. Not only do they like to watch the sport, but a hefty 7 million members constitute the national football federation, making it the single largest sports federation in the world. That’s roughly 10% of all Germans who are directly tied to the German football association.

There are matches every weekend in the Bundesliga, the national football league, and the “Mannschaft”, the national team, is widely successful with 4 World Cup titles.

Number of Football licensed players in Germany: 6,600,000

Famous German Football players: Gerd Müller, Franz Beckenbauer, Jürgen Klinsmann, Miroslav Klose, Lothar Matthäus,, Uwe Seeler, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Oliver Kahn, Thomas Müller, Michael Ballack, Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Manuel Neuer, Toni Kroos

Ski jumping

The second most popular sport in Germany is ski jumping. Believe it or not, German people adore ski jumping. Not only is it the most popular winter sport in the country, but it only comes second to football across all sports. The TV broadcasts very often attract 5 million viewers.

On top of that, Germany is vastly successful on a worldwide scale when it comes to ski jumping competitions: some of its top jumpers are Jens Weißflog, Hans-Georg Aschenbach, Sven Hannawald, Martin Schmitt, and Severin Freund.

Number of Ski jumping licensed players in Germany: 1,303

Famous German Ski jumping players: Markus Eisenbichler, Karl Geiger, Stephan Leyhe, Richard Freitag, Werner Schuster, Martin Schmitt, Jens Weißflog, Karl Geiger, Carina Vogt

Handball

The third most popular sport in Germany is handball. You might have already heard someone correcting you with the pronunciation of the word “handball”. If not, you are supposed to say it the German way, quite simply because the sport was invented in the country.

Handball is particularly appreciated in smaller German cities, whereas the bigger ones almost always prefer football. In fact, the most successful handball teams in Germany are the ones from small cities. Even though the German national league is considered to be the best on the planet, the national team is very inconsistent.

Number of Handball licensed players in Germany: 750,000

Famous German Handball players: Uwe Gensheimer, Hendrik Pekeler, Silvio Heinevetter, Kai Häfner, Patrick Groetzki, Tobias Reichmann, Pascal Hens, Andreas Wolff, Nadine Krause

Biathlon

The fourth German national sport is biathlon. In recent years, biathlon has seen a huge increase in popularity in Germany. It enjoys one of the highest TV ratings in the country (for any sport outside of football of course).

Germany is the best country in the world when it comes to biathlon: they won 59 Olympic medals in the discipline, including 20 gold medals (a record shared with Russia only). There are many successful German biathletes like Frank-Peter Roetsch, Michael Greis, and Sven Fischer.

Famous German Biathlon players: Frank-Peter Roetsch, Michael Greis, Sven Fischer, Magdalena Neuner, Kati Wilhelm, Andrea Henkel, Martina Beck, Simone Hauswald, Miriam Neureuther, Tina Bachmann, Sabrina Buchholz, Kathrin Lang

Track and field

The fifth Germany national game is track and field. Hop, skip, jump: track and field is yet another German specialty. There are almost a million Germans practicing the sport, competitively or recreationally, and they are trained by the “Deutscher Leichtathletik-Verband”, or German Track and Field Association.

The first name of the association was “German Sports Authority for Athletics”, and it was founded in 1898! Nowadays, it is the fifth-largest association in the German Olympics Sports Association.

Number of Track and field licensed players in Germany: more than 900,000 (including amateurs)

Famous German Track and field players: Gesa Felicitas Krause, Betty Heidler, Julian Reus, Lucas Jakubczyk, Sebastian Bayer, Arne Gabius, Christina Obergföll, Ariane Friedrich

Motorsports

The sixth most popular sport in Germany is motorsports. Honestly, who has never heard of Michael Schumacher? The German legend was one of the (if not the) most successful Formula One drivers of his time.

When it comes to spectators, Formula One is a hugely popular sport in Germany. In fact, there are not only outstanding drivers like Sebastian Vettel or Nico Rosberg but there are also some of the best car manufacturing teams, like BMW, Porsche, and Mercedes-Benz.

The local Grand Prix is called the German Grand Prix, and it takes place each year at either Nürburgring or Hockenheimring.

Number of Formula One licensed players in Germany: 1 (Sebastian Vettel)

Famous German Motorsports players: Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Bernd Rosemeyer, Marco Wittmann, Klaus Ludwig, Hans Joachim Stuck

Skiing

The seventh most popular sport in Germany is skiing. You already know how much Germany loves winter sports, and skiing is another one of these. More precisely, it is not watching skiers that draw many German people, but rather skiing themselves.

There are several popular resorts around the country, most of them being located near the biggest German mountain, “die Zugspitze”. Some tourists and locals also head to Italy, Switzerland, and Austria (which are very accessible from Germany) for their skiing holidays.

Number of Skiing licensed players in Germany: 14,607

Famous German Skiing players: Andreas Strodl, Christina Geiger, Dominik Stehle, Fanny Chmelar, Felix Neureuther, Gina Stechert, Katharina Dürr, Kathrin Hölzl, Maria Höfl-Riesch

Boxing

The eighth most popular sport in Germany is boxing. The rise of boxing is very real all around the world. Fighting sports are becoming more and more popular, and there is no exception to that in Germany.

The main reason for boxing to be so appreciated in the country is three legendary boxers: Henry Maske and the Klitschko brothers (even though the latter were not born in Germany). Whenever one of them was fighting, each boxing event would bring in thousands of people around the ring, and millions of viewers in front of the TV.

Famous German Boxing players: Max Schmeling, Henry Maske, Arthur Abraham, Sven Ottke, Graciano Rocchigiani, Marco Huck, Jürgen Brähmer, Felix Sturm, Mario Veit, Walter Neusel

Tennis

The ninth most popular sport in Germany is tennis. Similar to boxing, there are two German tennis legends who helped popularize the sport in the country: Boris Becker and Steffi Graf. These two players created the biggest hype around tennis during the 1990s when they were dominating the world stage. Becker was the youngest player to ever win the title at Wimbledon, while Graf was ranked amongst the best female tennis players in the world, for years.

To this day, even though the sport remains quite popular in terms of practice (around 5 million active players), not many Germans watch it on TV anymore.

Number of Tennis licensed players in Germany: 1,400,000 (5,000,000 active players)

Famous German Tennis players: Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Tommy Haas, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Michael Stich, Angelique Kerber, Sabine Lisicki, Andrea Petkovic, Anke Huber, Gottfried von Cramm

Swimming

The tenth most popular sport in Germany is swimming. If you have ever been to the North of Germany, you might be surprised to learn that swimming is so popular in the country: the Baltic Sea is the only sea that they have access to, and it is quite cold, to say the least.

Despite this, the country has produced very successful Olympic swimmers and won a grand total of 61 Olympic medals across the decades, including 13 Golds, 19 Silvers, and 29 Bronzes.

Famous German Swimming players: Franziska van Almsick, Michael Gross, Paul Biedermann, Daniela Hunger, Daniela Samulski, Hildegard Schrader, Erich Rademacher, Annika Bruhn, Franziska Hentke, Sarah Köhler

Ice Hockey

The eleventh most popular sport in Germany is ice hockey. Many German people say that there is no other sport in Germany where the fans make so much noise and party that hard after the game than ice hockey.

The best ice hockey teams usually come from the biggest cities, which can afford ice rings. If you want to make sure the atmosphere is as epic as it sounds, you should definitely watch one of the games between the top teams like Grizzlys Wolfsburg, EHC Red Bull München, or Kölner Haie.

Number of Ice Hockey licensed players in Germany: 21,336

Famous German Ice Hockey players: Leon Draisaitl, Christian Ehrhoff, Dennis Seidenberg, Marco Sturm, Uwe Krupp, Jochen Hecht, Philipp Grubauer, Olaf Kölzig, Tobias Rieder

Cycling

The twelfth most popular sport in Germany is cycling. Contrary to many sports on this list, Germans generally watch cycling on TV rather than practicing it themselves, though it is still quite popular in the country. While not many people practice it as a serious sport, many others enjoy it as a simple pastime.

The reason for the decline of cycling in Germany is that some of the most successful cyclists like Erik Zabel and Jan Ullrich were both accused of doping.

Famous German Cycling players: Rudi Altig, Jan Ullrich, Josef Fischer, Albert Richter, Heinz Müller, Erik Zabel, Olaf Ludwig, Dietrich Thurau, Joseph Rosemeyer, Theodor Leupold

Triathlon

The thirteenth most popular sport in Germany is triathlon. The fame of triathlon is relatively recent in Germany since the German Triathlon Union was founded in 1985, but this does not mean that the country knows nothing about the sport.

In fact, it is quite the opposite, since Germany has produced very talented triathletes, like Stephan Vuckovic (2000 Sydney Olympics silver medalist) and Jan Frodeno (2008 Beijing Olympics gold medalist). The greatest athletes in the discipline come from Great Britain though.

Famous German Triathlon players: Jan Frodeno, Stephan Vuckovic, Faris Al-Sultan, Andreas Dreitz, Thomas Hellriegel, Steffen Justus, Maik Twelsiek, Horst Reichel, Andreas Raelert, Michael Raelert, Rainer Müller-Hörner

Cross-country skiing

The fourteenth and last most popular sport in Germany is cross-country skiing. Due to the climate and the geography of Germany, there are many places where cross-country skiing is very popular, especially around the Alps, in the southern part of the country. There are also other areas like “Mittelgebirge” which fit cross-country skiing even more, due to the rolling hills (instead of the death-defying drops of the Alps which suit downhill skiing more).

Overall, the activity is widely appreciated by both locals and tourists.

Famous German Cross-country skiing players: Hans Bauer, Viola Bauer, Holger Bauroth, Jochen Behle, Thomas Bing, Constanze Blum, Ludwig Böck, Helmut Böck

So there you have them, these were all the most popular games in Germany. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today. Keep reading to get a few more facts about the famous sports of Germany.

Is golf a popular sport in Germany?

While golf is not on this list of the top sports in Germany, it is still very appreciated. The issue with golf is that only upper and upper-middle classes participate, no matter the country.

Even though it could be more popular if more affordable, Germany still is one of the largest golfing nations in Europe with more than 700 golfing clubs.

How popular is basketball in Germany?

You might have noticed another major absent on this list: basketball. And this does not mean that the sport is not popular at all in Germany, but to be fair, compared to other countries, it could be better. The major contributors to German basketball are two players who made big careers in the NBA: Detlef Schrempf and Dirk Nowitzki.

How popular is tennis in Germany?

Tennis is #8 on this list of the most popular sports in Germany. It has always been part of the national sports, especially during the 1990s, when players like Boris Becker and Steffi Graf were absolutely smashing the world stage.

On top of that, there are also big tennis events from around the world that are often broadcast in Germany.

Is badminton famous in Germany?

Badminton is not extremely popular around the world, but it is fairly played in Germany. The truth is that tennis has a better reputation, for several reasons (TV broadcasts, players being hyped up, …). Compared to it, badminton is just a for-fun sport, sadly.

Do German universities have sports teams?

Short answer: no.

Long answer: while there are many sports teams in American colleges and universities, it is not the case in Germany. There are still some sports activities offered though, either for fun or for physical fitness, but there is no competition nor semi-professional sports inside the universities. The only thing that comes close to it is maybe Olympic athletes that can get special arrangements from their schools.

More Sport Facts!

Loved these Germany sports facts? Want to see what sports are the most popular in other countries?

Then check out these posts:

• Famous Sports in the Netherlands
• Famous Sports in Belgium
• Famous Sports in England

Or click here to see ALL the facts up on the blog! Spoiler alert: there’s A LOT of them.

Share the knowledge! Click on the buttons below to share information about these famous sports in Germany with your friends, and help them learn more about the world 🙂