The 30 Most Popular Sports in the World (+ #1 by country)

The Most Popular Sports in the World

Find below the list of the most popular sports in the world, ranked by number of fans:

So there you have them, the most played sports in the world! Keep reading below for more information about each sport in the world.

What is the Most Popular Sport in the World?

The most popular sport in the world is football. Football is easy to understand, easy to set up, and does not require a lot of materials. Because of this, it quickly grew to become the most popular sport worldwide, being played by more than 250,000,000 professional players, but a lot more casual players. It’s also one of the most watched sports in the world.

Learn More About the Most Famous Sports in the World

Sports are everywhere in the world. Whether it is for recreational purposes, to stay fit, or to compete at the highest possible level, athletes are passionate.

While sports greatly vary depending on the country or the region, some of them are popular all around the globe. Because of this, I will talk a bit more about the 10 most famous sports in the world, their influence, and their fans:

Football

The biggest sport in the world is, by far, football.

Football is played by 2 teams of 11 players. Only the goalkeeper of each team is allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms. The goal of the game is to score points by shooting the ball at the opposing team’s goal. Players can pass the ball with their whole body except for their arms and hands.

The most important football event in the world is the FIFA World Cup, which takes place every 4 years. Other major continental tournaments like the UEFA Euros in Europe or the Copa America in America are also widely followed.

As for clubs, they compete against each other all throughout the year in many different leagues. The most competitive ones are definitely England’s “Premier League”, Spain’s “La Liga” and Germany’s “Bundesliga”. The most followed football club event is the UEFA Champions League tournament, which takes place every year in Europe. The most famous football clubs are all in Europe, and fans mostly watch European leagues all around the world. Some of the most notorious ones are FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool FC, Bayern München, Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea FC, Manchester City, and Manchester United.

Number of Football licensed players in the world: 250,000,000

Famous Football players in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, Paul Pogba, Pelé, Diego Maradona, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Luis Suárez, Robert Lewandowski, Mohamed Salah, Sergio Agüero, Andrés Iniesta, Zinédine Zidane, Ronaldinho, Gareth Bale

Basketball

The second most popular sport in the world is basketball.

Basketball is one of the highest-paid sports, and it is played by 2 teams of 5 players. In this game, teams play on a rectangular court, and they have to shoot a ball through a hoop. This hoop is high mounted and relatively small, which results in spectacular jumps (known as “dunks”) or far-away shoots (known as “3-pointers”).

You must have heard about the National Basketball Association, also known as NBA, in the United States. It is the main basketball league in the world, and it gathers some of the best players. Opposite to football, fans prefer watching the NBA over worldwide tournaments like the Olympic Games, where players are gathered by countries. This is because basketball is less competitive when you separate players by country since a few nations dominate the worldwide scene. In the NBA, you have most of the best players in the world that regularly play against and with each other.

There are also other leagues in other countries, mostly in Europe, as well as other tournaments (like the EuroBasket), but again, the vast majority of followers enjoy watching the NBA.

Number of Basketball licensed players in the world: 450,000,000

Famous Basketball players in the world: LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Wilt Chamberlain, Stephen Curry, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, James Harden, Chris Paul, Scottie Pippen, Tim Duncan

Cricket

The third best sport in the world is cricket.

Maybe this will surprise you because cricket is not that popular in many countries around the world. However, it is the sport in countries like India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Overall, cricket is a British sport and it spread in British colonies over the centuries.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game that is played by 2 teams of 11 players. Each of the teams takes turns to bat, and their goal is to attempt to score runs. During each turn, known as an inning, one team bats while the other team fields. There are 3 different cricket formats, Test, One Day Internationals, and Twenty20. The best countries in the world are sanctioned to play Test cricket. And yes, “sanctioned”, because it is the hardest difficulty of the sport. 12 countries take part in Test cricket.

While the fan base of cricket is extremely huge, it is only limited to a few countries. Most notably, cricket is not a popular sport at all in the United States, most of Europe, and Africa. When it comes to TV audiences, cricket is the most-watched sport in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, and Australia.

Famous Cricket players in the world: Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Donald Bradman, Chris Gayle, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Rohit Sharma, Viv Richards, Muttiah Muralitharan, Yuvraj Singh, Wasim Akram, Sunil Gavaskar, Garfield Sobers, Sourav Ganguly

Hockey

The fourth most popular sport in the world is hockey.

Hockey is divided into two very popular sports: field hockey during summer and ice hockey during winter. The goal of the two sports is overall the same though: 2 teams play against each other and have to pass a ball or a puck into the opponent’s goal, with a hockey stick. While both forms are popular around the world, one of them is usually predominant in a said country, which will simply refer to it as “hockey”.

Ice hockey is very popular in North America, Europe, Latvia, and Sweden. In fact, it is the national winter sport of Canada for instance. On the other hand, field hockey is the national sport of both Pakistan and India. It is also the national summer sport of Canada, the only country in the world to have 2 official national sports!

The most-watched hockey content is definitely the National Hockey League, or NHL, in North America. It features 32 teams, including 25 from the United States and 7 from Canada, and they play against each other all around the year.

Famous Hockey players in the world: Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Alexander Ovechkin, Mario Lemieux, Bobby Orr, Sidney Crosby, Maurice Richard, Art Ross, Bobby Hull, Mark Messier, Jean Béliveau, Jaromír Jágr, Steve Yzerman, Ted Lindsay, Phil Esposito, Brett Hull, Patrick Roy

Tennis

The fifth most popular sport in the world is tennis.

And there we go, the first individual sport on this list. Tennis is followed by around a billion fans, mostly from Europe, the Americas, and Asia. This sport is either played individually or between two teams of two players. Even though all disciplines are played and featured at major events, the individual variant, called “Singles”, is far more popular. In tennis, each player uses a racket made of strung cords to hit a hollow rubber ball over or around a net and into the opponent’s court. The way of counting points is very unique, but the overall goal is to prevent the opponent from playing a good return.

Tennis is mostly appreciated in developed countries, sadly. The sport is historically reputed to be reserved for the upper classes, and this shows in the audience.

As for the players, the current level might be the best the sport ever witnessed. The almighty Djokovic-Nadal-Federer trio has been dominating the worldwide scene for years. They all have their favorite tournaments (Nadal dominating in Roland-Garros for instance), but they are simply legends and are admired by hundreds of millions of fans around the planet.

Number of Tennis licensed players in the world: 87,000,000

Famous Tennis players in the world: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Björn Borg, Rod Laver, Serena Williams, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Andy Murray, Steffi Graf, Boris Becker, Chris Evert, Margaret Court

Volleyball

The sixth most famous sport in the world is volleyball.

Volleyball, at a high level, is very spectacular and high-paced. It is a team sport in which 2 teams of 6 players play against each other. They are separated by a high net, and their goal is to score points by hitting the ground of the opposing team with a ball. You will typically see players set up a high ball for their teammates that will jump very high and try to smash it down. On the other side of the net, the opposing team gathers and jumps as high as possible to block the ball.

Volleyball has been a part of the Olympic Games since 1964, and it is vastly appreciated as a recreational sport by the youth. It is largely taught at high schools, colleges, and universities. Opposite to other sports, volleyball is quite evenly spread throughout the world, and fans really enjoy the Olympics event.

Out of all sports, volleyball has the highest number of national federations in the world. The biggest volleyball competition is the FIVB Volleyball Championship. It features 24 countries from all around the globe, and it is held every 4 years.

Number of Volleyball licensed players in the world: 800,000,000 (includes casual players)

Famous Volleyball players in the world: Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, Karch Kiraly, Giba, Logan Tom, Lorenzo Bernardi, Sheilla Castro, April Ross, Regla Torres Herrera, Lang Ping, Saeid Marouf, Kim Yeon-koung, Steve Timmons, Ricardo Lucarelli de Souza, Randy Stoklos

Table tennis

The seventh sport on this list of the most popular sports worldwide is table tennis.

Table tennis, or ping pong, is majorly an individual sport, but it can be played as a team of 2. Players face each other on a small table with a net in the middle of it, and the goal of the game is very similar to that of tennis: they have to make the ball bounce on the opposing side of the table, and if the opponent cannot do the same, a point is earned.

Table tennis has a ton of professional players that mostly come from Asia, but there are also lots of hobbyists and casual players. These fans are scattered all around the world, even though Asia is particularly fond of the sport.

On the competitive scene, table tennis is particularly spectacular, and it can be very hard for a rookie spectator to even see the ball fly by! It is in fact very, very light and players strike it hard and quick.

The major table tennis competition in the world is the World Table Tennis Championship. It is held every other year and gathers the best players in the world.

Number of Table tennis licensed players in the world: 300,000,000

Famous Table tennis players in the world: Ma Long, Jan-Ove Waldner, Xu Xin, Wang Liqin, Liu Guoliang, Zhang Jike, Ma Lin, Fan Zhendong, Wang Hao, Timo Boll, Deng Yaping, Guo Yue, Tomokazu Harimoto, Ichirō Ogimura, Kong Linghui, Zoran Primorac, Ding Ning, Qiao Hong

Mixed Martial Arts

The eighth sport in this list of the world’s most popular sports is mixed martial arts.

Mixed martial arts, mostly known as MMA, has the most underserved fan base on the planet. Around half a billion fans regularly follow the sport from all around the world. It is one of the fastest-growing sports on the planet and has been for the past couple of years.

Mixed martial arts is a full-contact sport in which fighters can strike, grapple, and fight on the ground. It is very violent and banned in several countries. Fighters are in an octagonal arena, separated from the fans by a cage.

The first MMA fight is said to have happened in 1993, but it has only been during the 2010s that the sport started to explode. Fighters from all around the planet are famous, and more and more are joining the major competition, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Besides, training camps are being built, and the word is quickly spreading.

Some famous MMA fighters are Conor McGregor and Georges St-Pierre.

Watch out for Mixed Martial Arts, it could very well become one of the top sports on the planet in a very quick time!

Number of Mixed Martial Arts licensed players in the world: 1,000

Famous Mixed Martial Arts players in the world: Georges St-Pierre, Jon “Bones” Jones, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Demetrious Johnson, Conor McGregor, Jose Aldo, Amanda Nunes, Stipe Miocic, Daniel Cormier, Dominick Cruz, B.J. Penn

Baseball

The ninth most popular sport worldwide is baseball.

The American sport of baseball is not only followed by American fans, even though it is an extremely popular one in the United States. The sport is also widely played in the Caribbeans and in Japan, most notoriously. It used to be the most-watched sport in the United States, but it slowly declined over the decades. In Japan, it is the most-watched sport on TV. Despite this, baseball will probably always remain in American culture, and the MLB is far from being a minor league.

Talking about which, the most famous baseball league in the world is by far the MLB, standing for Major League Baseball. It is the oldest major professional sports league in the world, and it features 30 teams divided into two conferences: the National League and the American League. 29 of these teams come from the United States, while the last one is Canadian.

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game in which 2 teams face off. They take turns batting and fielding, like in cricket. One pitcher from one team throws the ball toward a batter from the other team. The goal of the sport depends on who attacks and who defends: the offensive team has to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing its players to run the bases, getting points, while the defensive team has to prevent batters from becoming runners.

Famous Baseball players in the world: Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Ty Cobb, Roger Clemens, Stan Musial, Clayton Kershaw, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Roberto Clemente, Mike Trout, Walter Johnson, Carlos Correa, Honus Wagner

American Football

The tenth most popular sport in the world is American football.

Last but not least, American Football, despite being largely famous only in the United States, still remains a major sport in the world. It is the biggest sport in the United States, and its most famous event is the Super Bowl. It is one of the biggest events in club sports in the world, and it is played between the champions of each conference: the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The winner is awarded the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

In the United States, American football is largely a college sport, in which colleges and universities face off throughout the year, and there are 3 collegiate divisions. In high school, the sport is the most popular one, especially amongst boys: an estimated 1.1 million boys participated in the sport from 2007 to 2008, and this number keeps growing.

American football is a team sport in which 2 teams of 11 players play against each other on a rectangular field. The team that possesses the oval-shaped football is the offense, and it has to attempt to advance down the field by running the ball or passing it until the opposing team’s end-zone, eventually resulting in a touchdown. Obviously, the defending team has to prevent them from scoring.

Number of American Football licensed players in the world: 45,000

Famous American Football players in the world: Tom Brady, Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Lawrence Taylor, Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Johnny Unitas, Reggie White, Peyton Manning, Don Hutson, Dick Butkus, Ronnie Lott, Anthony Muñoz, Joe Greene, Sammy Baugh, Deacon Jones

So there you have them, these were all the biggest sports in the world. I hope you enjoyed them and that you learned something new today.

In case you want to learn more, feel free to keep reading, as I still have lots of things to tell you about, starting off with 2 quick questions, followed by the list of the most popular sport by country:

What is the Most Watched Sport in the World?

Again, football also dominates when it comes to watching sports. It is the #1 most watched sport in the world with an estimated 3.5 billion fans, around half the world’s population!

Most notably, the FIFA World Cup is the most watched sports league in the world, every 4 years. It has been historically dominated by Brazil (the only team to have played at every tournament), Germany, and Italy.

What is the Most Played Sport in the World?

This will probably surprise you, but football is only the 4th most played sport in the world! The #1 place belongs to… volleyball!

The sport almost gathers a billion players all around the world. And even though most of them are casuals, and the sport is not that watched, it is by far the most played sport on the planet. Other sports in the top 5 include Basketball (400 million), Table tennis (300 million), Football (250 million), and Badminton (200 million).

List of the Most Popular Sport by Country

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

Then check out these posts:

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

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