England Sports – The 16 Most Popular Sports in England

The Most Popular English Sports

Find below the national sports in England ranked by popularity:

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

What is the National Sport of England?

The national sport of England is cricket. While this is not official, cricket is considered England’s national sport. There are disputes about the origins of the sport, but many think that it comes from England. It is nowadays still very popular, and the national team is extremely good at it. 

Learn More About England Popular Sports

England is one of the countries that make up the United Kingdom. It is located in the North Atlantic, it is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea and the English Channel, and it is bordered by Wales and Scotland. It also counts hundreds of small islands, and it covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain. Its capital city is London, which counts more than 8,961,000 inhabitants (but more than 14,257,000 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 England’s popular sports, and I hope you will love them:

Football

The most popular sport in England is, by far and away, football. Football in England dates back to 1863 when it was first codified in London. The goal of the game was to unify English schools and universities. The sport is said to have existed since at least 1581 when there were team football games in English schools.

Nowadays, English people are crazy about football. The national league, the Premier League, is reputed to be the best one in the world, featuring incredible teams like Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United.

Famous English Football players: David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Michael Owen, Bobby Charlton, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes, Peter Crouch, Gary Neville, Jamie Vardy, James Milner, Joe Cole, Jamie Carragher, Harry Kane

Cricket

The second most popular sport in England is cricket. Cricket, considered the English national sport, is widely followed. The English national cricket team is one of the 12 members of the International Cricket Council, which means it participates in test cricket, One Day Internationals, Twenty20 International matches, and the Cricket World Cup.

There are 18 teams in the national cricket system. They originate from all historic counties of England and Wales, and they play matches over the summer season.

Famous English Cricket players: Alastair Cook, Ian Botham, Kevin Pietersen, David Gower, Graham Gooch, James Anderson, Andrew Flintoff, Bob Willis, Jos Buttler, Andrew Strauss

Tennis

The third most played sport in England is tennis. Even though there are not many English tennis superstars, the sport is very popular, and it is in fact the largest individual sport in the country, both in terms of registered players and viewing audiences.

The major tennis event in England is Wimbledon, one of the most famous ones in the world. It has been held in London since its creation in 1877, and it is played on grass. Historically, the most successful tennis player at Wimbledon is Swiss legend Roger Federer, who won 8 titles there.

Number of Tennis licensed players in England: 754,900

Famous English Tennis players: Cameron Norrie, Dan Evans, Liam Broady, Kyle Edmund, Fred Perry, Heather Watson, Tim Henman, Cameron Norrie, Laura Robson, Virginia Wade, Sue Barker

Rugby Union

The fourth most popular sport in England is rugby union. Rugby union, rugby league and football all originate from traditional British football games from the 19th century. Rugby was officially codified in 1871.

England has one of the best rugby union teams on the planet. It won the 2003 World Cup, and it participates in the annual Six Nations Championship, the main European international rugby union competition.

The local rugby union competition is the Gallagher Premiership. It features 12 teams, and it was founded in 1987.

Number of Rugby union licensed players in England: 138,579

Famous English Rugby union players: Jonny Wilkinson, Owen Farrell, Neil Back, Jason Robinson, Clive Woodward, Bill Beaumont, Peter Winterbottom, David Duckham, Reg Birkett

Badminton

The fifth most popular sport in England is badminton. The main reason for badminton to be so popular in England is the fact that it is very accessible to beginners. However, it has a lot of depth, and can be extremely competitive and physically demanding.

England has won medals in badminton at the 2000 Olympic Games, and at the 2004 edition. There is a national tournament, the All-England Championships, that takes place every year in Birmingham and attracts many of the top players from around the world.

Famous English Badminton players: Chris Adcock, Lauren Smith, Gabrielle Adcock, Nathan Robertson, Gail Emms, Marcus Ellis, Rajiv Ouseph, Chris Langridge, George Alan Thomas

Field hockey

The sixth most popular sport in England is field hockey. Field hockey is mostly a recreational sport in England, but there are still 117,000 registered players in the country.

When it comes to the international stage, the women’s hockey team won the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and they were followed by more than 10 million viewers. As for men, they won the hockey tournament at the 1988 Olympics.

The popularity of the sport has been on the rise in the past couple years, most notably thanks to the success of the women’s team.

Number of Field hockey licensed players in England: 117,000

Famous English Field hockey players: Alex Danson, Crista Cullen, Ashleigh Ball, Hannah Macleod, Laura Bartlett, Emily Maguire

Netball

Nottingham Trent University / CC BY-NC-ND

The seventh most popular sport in England is netball. The governing body of netball in England is England Netball, and it was founded in 1926. It oversees everything related to the sport, most importantly the national netball team, “The Vitality Roses”. Netball has more than 100,000 players, and more than 180,000 women and girls play it every week.

In case you do not know what it is, netball is a team sport in which two 7-players teams face off. It is close to basketball, as players need to score by throwing the ball through a net.

Number of Netball licensed players in England: 100,000

Famous English Netball players: Serena Guthrie, Sonia Mkoloma, Fran Williams, Razia Quashie, Eleanor Cardwell, Stacey Francis, Tamsin Greenway, Lyn Carpenter, Sasha Corbin

Rugby League

The eighth most popular sport in England is rugby league. Despite the sport being less popular than its most famous variant, rugby union, rugby league has its own following, player base, and even governing body. The Rugby Football League was established in 1895, and the sport is still quite popular nowadays.

The national league is the Super League, which is made of 12 teams since 2015 (it used to be 14). 10 of these teams come from England, while the 2 others are from France and Canada.

Famous English Rugby league players: Martin Offiah, Ellery Hanley, Shaun Edwards, Alex Murphy, Roger Millward, Kevin Sinfield, Lance Todd, Andy Gregory, Harold Wagstaff, Neil Fox

Athletics

The ninth most popular sport in England is athletics. Even though England does not compete at the Olympic Games as such (they compete as part of Team GB), athletics remain remarkably popular.

Most famously, London became the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympic Games three times in 2012. The other 2 editions were in 1908 and in 1948. There are also national athletics events that are popular.

Sir Mohammed Farah became the most successful athlete in the European Athletics Championships history in 2014.

Famous English Athletics players: Linford Christie, Mo Farah, Dwain Chambers, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, John Regis, Zharnel Hughes, Douglas Walker, Iwan Thomas, Martyn Rooney, Steve Heard

Boxing

The tenth most popular sport in England is boxing. England has had a major role in the development of boxing as we know it now. It codified the rules of the sport, known as the Queensberry Rules, in the 19th century.

The professional scene is one of the biggest ones outside of the United States, and a few elite boxers become known in the entire country. The most popular of them are heavyweight contenders, but the majority of English World champions were fighting in the middling weight brackets.

Famous English Boxing players: Chris Eubank, Bob Fitzsimmons, Ted Lewis, Carl Froch, Frank Bruno, Robin Reid, Luke Campbell, James Figg, George Groves, Anthony Willis, Nicholas Gargano

Golf

The eleventh most popular sport in England is golf. Golf was invented by England’s neighbor, Scotland, but the country has helped the sport grow a lot by quickly developing it and by founding the Professional Golfers’ Association. Nowadays, golf is very popular in the country, with more than 655,000 players.

The major English golf tournaments are the Open Championship and the BMW PGA Championship, a major event of the European tour. The famous Ryder Cup also comes from England.

Number of Golf licensed players in England: 655,839

Famous English Golf players: Nick Faldo, Rory Mcilroy, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henry Cotton, Ian Woosnam, Justin Rose, Colin Montgomerie, Luke Donald, Laura Davies

Cycling

The twelfth most popular sport in England is cycling. While many English people love biking as a recreational sport, or as a means to go to school or work, the country has been shining in the world’s professional cycling scene during the past decades.

Cyclists like Mark Cavendish and Chris Froome are currently some of the best ones in the world. The first one has won 34 Tour de France stages, making him equal first of all time, while the latter has won 4 editions of the Tour de France, 1 Giro d’Italia, and 2 Vuelta a España.

Number of Cycling licensed players in England: 7,500,000 (includes casual cyclists)

Famous English Cycling players: Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, Sir Chris Hoy, Nicole Cooke, Tom Simpson, Robert Millar, Geraint Thomas, Chris Boardman, David Millar

Motorsports

The thirteenth most popular sport in England is motorsports. Motorsports are on the rise all around the world, and England is no exception to that. In fact, the majority of the Formula One teams are based in England, and English drivers have won 8 Formula One World Championship titles. The local Formula One event is the British Grand Prix, which takes place at Silverstone every year in July.

Other popular motorsports include motor racing series and rallying. Besides, England is known as the best country for building racing cars.

Number of Formula One licensed players in England: 3

Famous English Motorsports players: Sir Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Sir Lewis Hamilton, Sir Stirling Moss, Nigel Mansell, Graham Hill, Barry Sheene, John Surtees

Horse Racing

The fourteenth most popular sport in England is horse racing. Horse racing is widely followed in England, and it is also one of the most ancient sports on the island, dating back many centuries. The sport is recognized for generating several billion pounds, helping the British economy a lot.

Horse racing was already played in Roman times, and lots of traditions and rules originate from that time. Now, there is the Jockey Club, which was founded in 1750 and codified the rules of racing.

Famous English Horse Racing players: Oisin Murphy, William Buick, Tom Marquand, David Probert, Hollie Doyle, James Doyle, Ben Curtis, Daniel Tudhope

Ice hockey

The fifteenth most popular sport in England is ice hockey. Compared to other sports, ice hockey is not widely played in England, counting merely 11,000 players, but it is the biggest indoor spectator sport. It still has a decent fan base, and the sport has a long history in the country.

The main ice hockey league is the Elite League, which is made of 10 professional teams. Many former NHL players join it, mostly during the lockout season.

Number of Ice hockey licensed players in England: 11,148

Famous English Ice hockey players: Jack Beattie, Adam Brown, Peter Lee, Byron Dafoe, Ken Hodge, Owen Nolan

Basketball

The sixteenth and last most popular sport in England is basketball. You might be surprised to see basketball so low on a list of popular sports, yet it is a minor sport in England. It still has a national league, the British Basketball League, which features 10 teams. The second league is called the English Basketball League, and it has 12 teams.

Because of this lack of popularity, it is not very surprising that the national basketball team is not very successful. Its best result was 13th place at EuroBasket 2011.

Famous English Basketball players: John Amaechi, Robert Archibald, Steve Bucknall, Luol Deng, Joel Freeland, Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Michael Olowakandi, Chris Harris

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

Which sport is most popular in British schools?

In British schools, the most popular sport is also football. Both girls and boys enjoy it, alongside other team sports like rugby, field hockey, and netball. Individual activities like athletics or gymnastics are also present.

Overall, football can be played by everyone, its rules are simple and it does not require a lot of equipment, which is why it is so widespread in schools.

What is the oldest sport in England?

Even though it is not on this list, the oldest team sport in England is polo. Believe it or not, the first recorded polo tournament took place in 600 B.C.! The Persians and the Turkomans faced off, and the latter won. The first polo game in England as we know it now happened in 1869, on Hounslow Heath.

More Sport Facts!

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

Then check out these posts:

• Famous Sports in Ireland
• Famous Sports in Germany
• Famous Sports in Australia

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

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