Most Popular Sports in the World
1) Football (Soccer):Soccer (more popularly known as Football in many regions) is a team sport that is popular in almost every country in the world. The huge fan following is perhaps due to the fact that at an amateur level, it requires very little equipment and effort to learn the basics. It starts with as simple as driving the ball into the opponent's goal post and preventing the opponent from doing so. Kids from all walks of life start playing soccer at an early age and go on to become ardent followers of the game. Soccer is also the highest paying team sport at professional level. The prize money for the winning team at the 2010 soccer world cup was US $30 million. The synonym of enthusiasm and zeal, soccer or soccer posses the number 1 ranking in the world's most popular sports. Learn more about this game which has taken the world by storm.
2) Basketball:Basketball is an action packed game combining the display of skills, strategy and athleticism in one of the shortest duration as compared to contemporary sports. Basketball gives you one of the most rigorous indoor exercises. The game originated in Canada and has a huge fan following in North America. However, it has gained worldwide popularity rather quickly - the Federation Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) ranking list has 82 countries with non-zero points after the 2012 London Olympics. Top Basketball players in the world are rewarded handsomely. In 2004, Michael Jordan made 35 million dollars.
3) Cricket:English version of American softball? Close but not quite. The third most popular sport in the world is also a team sport. Cricket's number three spot in terms of number of fans is thanks largely due to its popularity in the Indian sub-continent. It is popular in Asia, Australia, Middle-East, England and few selected countries, but is slowly expanding its reach to other countries. Cricket is a rather interesting sport with many formats - from test matches which last for as long as 5 days to the more recent 20-20 format which has a duration of about 3 hours. The original format of the game (5 days) and the somewhat involved rules and skills required meant that Cricket was popular among a few selected countries to begin with. However, the introduction of the 20-20 format has resulted in many more countries participating in the sport at an international level.
4) Tennis:Tennis is one of the top 5 most popular sport in the world, but is the most popular individual sport. Tennis can be played between two single players or two teams of a pair of players each (doubles variant). It is a sport which is equally popular among men and women. Lawn tennis is a very high paying individual sport - individual players have made more than $40 million in a year alone. Tennis is a fascinating game as well as exercise. The fact that there is no fixed time limit in the game means a player has to work hard on his/her stamina - matches between professionals often turn out to be a test of endurance. The only limiting factor in the popularity of the game is the availability of affordable tennis courts for common public. Everyone should try Lawn Tennis - the world's most popular individual sport atleast once!
5) Baseball:Baseball, the national pastime of the United States, is one of the top 10 most popular sports in the world. Baseball is also a very high paying sport at the professional level - the total prize money for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament standing at $14 million, and individual players in the United States earning as much as $33 million in a year.
Sanjoy said on 2017-06-01 16:12:47:
Football /Soccer Always Top.
jaydah paige said on 2017-05-31 07:43:15:
I like every sport no matter what
risto said on 2017-05-02 14:52:52:
} _)(*
Mega said on 2017-02-27 15:22:40:
Cricket.
JP said on 2017-02-21 13:08:42:
I think cricket must have increased to number 2 by now!
Where is Motocross?
-Chickenking
The most populer sports list would be -
1. Soccer (association football)
2. Cricket
3. Rugby
4. Field hockey
5. Volleyball
6. Basketball
7. Tennis
8. Badminton
9. American football
10. Chess
The list given by this website is true according to how much a game follwed by fans on internet..... But according to me, list above is better..... What do you think....
-Manonjadhav026
errr cricket is played extensively throughout; england, australia, new zealand, india, pakistan, sri lanka, zimbabwe and many other african nations, and most of the west indies. probably bigger than baseball and gridiron combined
-Cgcribb
I would also say this... Basketball is really huge. It is very popular in
1) America: USA, but also Canada, Brazil and Argentina (Olympic Champion 2004)
2) Europe: if you exclude soccer, basketball is the most popular sport here in Europe. It is played everywhere (except the British Isles): Spain, Italy, Germany, France, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Russia. Soviet Union was a GIANT of basketball.
3) China. Professional basketball has a long tradition in China, but after Yao Ming the popularity has amazingly grown.
4) Not as popular as in Europe or USA, but Australia and New Zealand have decent teams and professional leagues have some traditions and history.
The NBA is a giant organization, known everywhere in the world. FIBA has 210 nations; only FIVB (volleyball) has more. For example, cricket has only 104 members (the half). There is an interesting element which has to be considered when talking about cricket: there are billions of fans, but they are concentrated in a very restricted area... the indian subcontinent. If you exclude the British Isles, in Europe there are very few cricket teams: basically nobody plays cricket here. And I don't think that the Americas are crazy for cricket: and a similar thing can be said about Asia (if you remove the subcontinent).
And it sounds weird to me that baseball is more popular than basketball... For example, here in Europe baseball is rather weak (not as weak as cricket, but not that strong either) and the same can be said about South America. A continent which is not interested in basketball is Africa: Angola is the only decent nation. But neither baseball has much popularity in Africa!
-Great_captain
kys
-suprise is something else is popular
baseball 7th it should be 2nd and socer it should be last!!
-ben
Ben If You Like Base Baseball I Have No Problem I Grew Up Playing Baseball And Football (Soccer) In The United States Baseball Very Popular In Many Countries Japan North Korea Venezuela Mexico Panama Domonican Republic Cuba Football ( Soccer) By Far Is The Most Popular Sport In The World I Like Baseball The Ratings Have Gone Down In The United States If You Do Not Like Football ( Soccer) Stop Hating It
-Joldiaz2011
For everyone debating over the legitimacy of the presence of Cricket at No. 2 on this page should note that.
Cricketing countries:
Before you start saying that not everyone watches cricket in these places, please note that large numbers do and I am merely naming cricket strongholds
Indian Subcontinent (Cricket = Religion)
NOTE: These are all test playing nations (Translation for americans and those not aware. These nations are considered to be the most elite cricket playing countries)
India: 1,210,193,422 people
Pakistan: 177,100,000 people
Bangladesh: 158,570,535 people
Sri Lanka: 20,860,000 people
Europe:
NOTE: Traditionally, cricket has assumed the role of a national sport in England. However, admittedly, football is more popular. Nevertheless, most follow the fortunes of the English cricket team. This too IS a test playing nation.
England: 52,234,000 people
Carribbean:
Cricket remains highly popular here.
Just find a list of ALL british caribbean countries except bermuda.
These are all represented by the West Indies cricket team
Oceania:
ALL TEST PLAYING NATIONS
Australia: 22,907,274 people
New Zealand: 4,422,700 people
Africa:
South Africa: 50,586,757 people
Kenya (cricket is quite popular here): 43,013,341
-Shree Mundhra
Another mistake is that you said Basketball came from Canada. In actual fact, Basketball is one of the many sports which was adapted (by which I mean 1 or 2 rules changed) from English sports.
Basketball came from Netball.
American Football came from Rugby.
Baseball came from Rounders.
Soccer came from Football (without any rules being changed, I believe).
-Bbbbb
You mean other sports? lolzzz
-Rahul 123
what the hell basket ball is beter dam do u ghave a mind
-Alayyya87
baseball doesn't beat soccer in terms of fanbase, no, but no passion, thats a load of BS, just GTFO, NOW! every sport has passion you dumb PoS.
-chaddouglass14
ya, u guys are all right, but i do think squash should be on that list...... just sayin
-Dhinchack
but soccers not slow
-jake
You dont need to do any type of studies or research to know that Soccer (Football) is # 1 and Basketball is # 2 in the world---- at all levels, from pick up (street) games to professionally. I have one thing to say to whoever thinks otherwise. "There is no worse blind than the one who doesnt want to see."
-Carlos Vazquez
Stop talking out of your ass. football is 100 times bigger than basketball. Did you honestly expect someone to believe this shit? retard
-paddywan
BASKETBALL IS N°2 BEHIND SOCCER!
-BASKETBALL!
cricket is progresive game
-Raju
ahhh Raju the order is
1.cricket
2.football
3.tennis
4.badmindon
5.field hockey
6.baseball
7.basketball
8.volleyball
9.table tennis
10.rugby
-Www Haleem
whats snowboarding ? !! hmmmmmmmmm
-Adamteeyabss
Wat r u a sport regulator from Mars?
-Jumbokidumb
Saying Baseball is closest to Cricket is ridiculous. How about saying it's closest to the sport which it came from, and the sport which it is very close to?
Baseball is closest to Rounders.
-Bbbbb
u bugging out litle pussy joker nigga baseball is one of the toughest sports so stop smoking brooooo
-Cesar191st
it says 200 and 75 are only ranked you moron
-Idk
yo yo honey singh :P
-TYYGSYDG
dude the most exciting sport is basketball, the game is fast.. no likes watching baseball, cricket and especially golf, I mean who gives a dam, about people hittin a ball by a stick and putting it inside a small hole, this list is wrong, basketball is 2nd, but by far soccer is the best, it shows commitment and passision,
-Mysterydude101
1stly you put foobal there thats only played by americans but not rugby thats played by most of the world? your mad
-shellas
Seriously dude, the most popular sport in Europe is football, followed by handball, basketball is not a huge sport in Europe, despite what you think. Other sports which are bigger than basketball in Europe would be golf, rugby union, tennis, cycling, field and ice hocky.
-Robert Cumming
not an opinion man, explain how tennis is more popular or more played than cricket ? India's biggest and most popular sport by far is cricket (despite their national sport officially being field hockey), now the population of this country is more than 1.2 billion in a world with under 7 billion people. do the math you bozo. not to mention all the countries in the middle east where cricket is most popular and many others where it has a strong following.
personally never watched the sport but i am smart enough to know that it is probably the second biggest sport in the world and definitely in the top 5. that's not debatable, its fact.
-Brcwallace
Did this article really just say that basketball originated in Canada?
-Juice1645
Okay, this list is SEVERELY flawed to begin with, because you are totally excluding a HUGE portion of the world, those people that do not have access to the internet, (i.e. much of Africa and Latin America, as well as poor regions of other countries). Now I will admit that soccer is the most popular sport in Africa and Latin America, but baseball has huge popularity in Latin countries and basketball is also very popular in Africa and other impoverished areas including large regions in the US and eastern europe. That being said, I understand cricket being up there, but basketball and baseball need to be much higher. No one in poor areas of the world know anything about tennis, gold, table tennis, field hockey, or cricket (save india). Also, combat sports, like boxing should have a place on this list. Here is my revised list (not necessarily the right one though).
1. Soccer (reaches all countries and every demographic)
2. Basketball (popular in most countries and spans every social class)
3. Cricket (because of India)
4. Baseball (US, Asian and Latin countries)
5. Volleyball (skewed by female participation)
6. Tennis (very popular but not accessible to poor)
7. Golf (also very popular but not accessible to poor)
8. Table Tennis (huge in Asian countries and universities in the US - a joke but still true)
9. Boxing/Combat sports (boxing and other combat sports are popular everywhere including poor areas of the world, so I wanted to lump them together to give them their props)
10. American Football (still limited popularity in Europe and Canada, but the NFL is one of the greatest professional organizations on the planet and the sport is still in its infant stage but deserves some recognition)
Honorable mention: Field Hockey (I cannot in good conscience put this on my list. The numbers are very skewed by female participation and this sport cannot possibly make any money.) Rugby is pretty big in a number of countries but has absolutely no pull in other parts of the world. The Olympics, if you take each event individually, they are not on this list, but if taken as a whole, they would be top 2 for sure!
-tfish
what about swimming!!??
-Friendswithbenefits
Terrance, you haven't done your Homework. Association Football (Soccer) is unquestionably the World's most popular sport. This isn't a guessing game, but rather, based on facts. Pure and simple.
-Jackster
What a bullshit list, you forgot a sport which is much bigger than baseball, gridiron, handball you dummies!
-Robert Cumming
are u crazy... number 1 baseball is way tougher than basketbal. basketball pushes each others butts like gays... baseball is stronger and more popular lets talk serious baseball is way more popular tha than basketball so get your head in the game broo.
-Cesar191st
Thank you, this has been rectified. We are also int the process of revamping the whole website with more accurate data. Feedback from users like you have helped a lot :)
-Admin
1) Basketball
2) soccar
3) Cricket
4) volleyball
5) tennis
6) baseball
7) American football
8) Rugby field hockey
9) combat sports/martial arts
10) motor sports
This feels closer espesialy basketball just click china, spain, italy, phillapeans, thats the # 1 and the rest of the world its usally in the top 5 personally I realy like basketball, combat sports, and both footballs thats my bread butter and stuffing.
-Terrance Copp
The list was a joke even before I read "Basketball - The game originated in Canada" LOL!!
-Me
u are not good at picking
-Armanakhverdyan
luv all sports
-Ayeshoo17
i agree
-Austina7
the Fédération Internationale de Basketball (FIBA) includes some 75 countries. This is wrong. It should be around 210. I think you have simply watched the FIBA ranking, which only shows 75 nations!! You should also have read this message: The countries not listed above have all 0 points and are therefore all positioned, with the same rank, after the last country mentioned. So, all this research is wrong!
-Great_captain
Soccer is better than baseball. But I like ice hockey the most.
-Jwhitacre88
I'm wondering... what are the 11-20th most popular sports in the world.... Also on the U.S. most popular sports it doesn't include Lacrosse, racquetball, box lacrosse and softball. Hmm...Pr
-anonymous person
i dont know what is wrong in cricket why england dont like cricket now england where great fans of cricket at past.
-Adithyanarayan27
Basketball should be in the top 5 and field hockey! It should be last,no one even plays it!!
-Aman
basketball is the most popular sport in europe....its bigger in every country except england than any other sport is !
-Me
no u r totally wrong Soccer should be 1st and baseball must be lasttttt!!!!!!!!!
-Adesh
I am An EGuL
-EGuL
best sports in world is soccer )
-its ok
i lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee basketball and i am a girl i think they should put baketball first and soccer last
-Jessie87
it should be
1:football soccer what ever you fancy
2:Tennis
3:Rugby Union
4:Baseball
5:Basketball
6:volleyball
7:Table Tennis
8:Field Hockey
9:Golf
10:Cricket
-the right way
Here is the official results. Take out the Olympics and it's Soccer (by miles!), American Football, Formula 1, Basketball, Tennis, Cycling, Horsracing then Rowing. The rest are all just 'games' not classed as sports!
The following table is cited from an article in the Media Guardian on
Dec 23, 2004, titled "Euro final tops TV sports league":
1. Football: Euro 2004 final Portugal v Greece 153 million
2. Olympic Games: opening ceremony 127 million
3. Olympic Games: closing ceremony 96 million
4. American football: Super Bowl 95 million
5. Olympic Games: men's 100m metres 87 million
6. Olympic Games: men's 200m freestyle swimming 66 million
7. Formula one: Monaco grand prix 59 million
8. Football: Champions League final Porto v Monaco 56 million
9. Basketball: NBA finals 25 million
10.= Tennis: Wimbledon women's singles final 21 million
10.= Tennis: Wimbledon men's singles final 21 million
12. Cycling: Tour de France final stage 16 million
13.= Football: FA Cup final Millwall v Man Utd 9 million
13.= Horseracing: Grand National 9 million
15. Rowing: University Boat Race 5 million
Initiative collected data from 57 major TV markets, accounting for
over 90% of TV households globally.
-Darryn Medhurst
Nooo!! dude, soccer is deff...the best sport in the world.
-Tu Madre
Basketball was invented in the US, not Canada.
-Ss8272
gay baseball is the best sports so broo are u smack lol...
-Cesar191st
not true you need have other countries say for example what about rugby that's played in a lot of countries
-kazie
69 bitches suck my dick soccer is boss and ur all gay fags with chodes and moose toes
-69ingwithyourmom69
There is a mistake in the methodology: rugby union is listed under "football" in the options, but then isn't getting calculated seperately. Rugby Union is in the top 5 in the UK and is no 1 in NZ as you might expect, but is being displayed as "football".
So basically where you have "american football" as the 10th most popular sport, you mean "rugby union". Please correct this.
-Aid_13
hold up, the top 10 sports include table tennis, but not rugby??? what is this madness?
-Benjinoz
ice is not the most slippery surface in the world and figure skating isnt even that dangerous. most dangerouse sport would probably be freestyle mtx those fools be breakin every bone in there body
-Bluntednhustlin
I agree, who cares about people hit balls with pieces of metal! Golf is SO boring
-Anonymous person
china has the biggest population not india *facepalm
-Zac Young
Why, you won the most moronic comment. "people that do not have access to the internet, (i.e. much of Africa and Latin America, as well as poor regions of other countries)" you can't possibly be that stupid and ignorant and prejudice.
-Gabie
hi ur LOSER
-Sdds
you are all forgetting boxing (and other combat sports such as MMA), the oldest and probably the greatest sport ever created. EVERYONE knows the names Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Duran, Hearnes, Haggler, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Leonox Lewis, Jones jnr, Paquiao, Mayweather, etc etc. People are also forgetting that since the dawn of time, two guys have got into a fight and another guy has gone over to watch them. You only need your hands for boxing. Motorsports too, formula one is massive in Europe south american and parts of asia and so is the Moto GP and nascar in the US (i think).
In my opinion the top 5 list for ALL TIME goes like this:
1. Football (without doubt the biggest and STILL the fastest growing sport in the world)
2. Cricket, purely because of india to be honest.
3. Athletics, although the olympics is the only big event, it's the bloody olympics. Racing someone still remains the most basic form of human competitiveness and everyone always knows who the fastest man in the world is at that particular time.
4. Basketball, not certain about this one but I was amazed at how popular is was in hong kong china when I went there.
5. Boxing (and mma), Fallen off in recent years due to corruption and liscensing disputes etc, there are like 6 belts for each weight class now which is stupid and fighters care too much about image these days. Mayweather and Paquiao makes perfect sense but it will never happen. Still, historically big fights and big names are remembered for years and years thereafter. MMA is booming worldwide with half of brazil tuning in to watch the UFC heavyweight title fight.
PS: rugby, tennis, golf and motor spots are hot on the heels of four and five.
-paddywan
OMFG FAKE AND GAY
-ilovepizza1
perhaps the only sport you got right is soccer...
-jaysondg
CRICKET, TABLE TENNIS,AND FIELD HOCKEY are GAY
-ARMANAKHVERDYAN
errm....guesing your english
-Me
whether you disagree with this list or not is irrrelevent, cricket is number two because more people support it around the WORLD then they do American sports (by far), thats simply a fact! And basketball more popular then baseball? really? This list is not based on personal oppinion, its based on fact!
-sportsfan
this is discrasful boxing is the best sport
-Megin109
It is not about what you think moron!! It is about facts, and Soccer is THE worlds most popular sport with more than 3,5 billion fans worldwide.
-Simen Renslo
please tell me the diff between rugby american football aissie rule football gealic football. why not all comes under one globle ruling body.
-googly
FOOTBALL is not goot.... football fans,cricket roxx
-Freako799
i m a sports geek from bangladesh, who likes to watch every sports except for golf & baseball coz its stupid and almost difficult for most ppl to understand the game so to me the top 10 sports wud b:
1) association football (soccer w.e u guys name)- undoubtedly
2) cricket- due to high viewers from indian subcontinent, trans-tasman, british south african & carribean popularity
3) tennis- every one loves watching federer nadal nojo sharapova etc to compete and win the GRAND SLAM
4)basketball- not played world wide but TRUST me almost all ppl from the world watches & follows kobe, lebron, celtics & lakers
5)table-tennis- only bcoz of the rising popularity in CHINA- the world's largest population
6) rugby- not followed as high as basket ball but a lot of ppl in asia watch it for free times
7)VOLLEYBALL
8)motorsports
9)AMERICAN FOOTBALL
10) WRESTLING
-Koushik
no has said anything about swimming
-Dlw91
this list has to be bull... track and field has to be top 3 ... everybody runs and jumps
-Sean
I am a first generation American here. When I was growing up in my old country as an young boy, I was quite athletic. The major sports available to me were Soccer, Cricket, Basketball, and a few others. I wanted to select a sport which is least biased to physical attributes that are acquired by birth, and puts more emphasis on your skill. Basketball was obviously out because the taller guys have so much more unfair advantage ! I see that most of the world choose the sport the same way !
-Jay Ghosh
1.football (soccer)
2.rugby union
3.cricket
4.basketball
5.field hockey
6.tennis
7.combat sports
8.track and field
9.alpine sports
10.volleyball
(11. Masturbatin)
-John253 cena
admin i would like to point out that rugby (worlds 6th biggest sport) is not reckonised in the pool nor golf plus in the country by country brakedown afl (ossy rules) is not reckonised as austrilas most popular sport
-Cdonaghy2003
soccer is the world sport, last time i check there is no worldcup for baseball. you are arrogant and have no clue about any other sport except redneck baseball. . go hit a couple of rocks with a stick.
-Ben
P.S HOCKEY WOULD VE BEEN THE TOP 10 SPORTS HAD IND AND PAK DIDNT SCREW IT COURTESY OF CRICKET
-Koushik
terribly false
-anon
americans, you first decide which sport is @1 in your country and then talk about other sports.
-farewell
how about cheerleading is that a popular sport cause som girls and boys like it so if this was my website i would put cheerleading who agrees reply if you agree
-Jessie87
ahhhhh,RUGBY???????? come on. sorry not an opinion but rugby is the third most popular in the world. and american football is in front at ten? WOW! -and yes im american and i play both football (gridiron) and rugby.
-Rugby
Pffffffffffft! Great grammar and spelling on that one hahaha. By the way what does this even have to do with most popular sports in the world...? And filed hockey as number 3, are you kidding me? First off, basketball is definitely more popular than baseball and cricket shouldn't be number 2. I highly disagree with this list, it is crap. :)
-Enzo
are you deluded? Baseball is suppose to be one of the most boring sports in the world, and thats what Americans say. It was invented by the English anyway.
-Djpeekay25
hockey is better, not more popular and more played, and who is the douche bag that said swimming, you nozzle, if your gonna throw something stupid like that out there, then atleast say running or cycling, which are hands down much more popular and played than swimming.
-Brcwallace
I do too.
-Cangjazo
it should be
1-cricket
2-soccer
3-tennis
4-field hockey
5-rugby union
6-volleyball
7-basketball
8-table tennis
9-baseball
10-golf
-Raju
Are you crazy? Basketball should be in the top 5 and should be more popular than baseball
-Franalexander38
What a fckn joke apparntly rugby isnt even in new zealands top 5 even though its our national sport and we are world champs. Lmfao this site is a joke
-Fhhff
where the hell is boxing? everyone likes boxing
-pacman
your list was almost the exact same thing..
--.-
First off I'm American, and love baseball, football and basketball, but I think we kind of believe America is the only country on Earth which is not true, American football is not even close to the level of soccer or rugby. Baseball is thee only close sport (not horribly close though) , Cricket is popular in India, which is the biggest country on earth, (population wise) so if most people in India play, then combined with some other countries I understand its popularity, I think that we Americans don't understand that there are sports other than American football, Basketball and baseball which makes us ignorant to other sports, I was surprised that Ice Hockey was not top 10 but In most place's there is not ice often enough to play so that makes sense, I think this was a well written article
-American
ur gay
-Vcvinchen123
Football I said it Football not Soccer is the most popular sport in the world played in every continent look at the FIFA World Cup only two nations didn't enter the qualification stages! Also look at the viewing rates for the World Cup!
-Henryblue
Football is the best sport ever created. I'm nottalking about soccer. Soccer is ninety minutes of nothing with a final score of one to nothing. Football is full of excitement, drama, upsets, amazing playings, scoring, and big hits.
-Cangjazo
Dude your crazy soccer is by far #1 no question. No one likes baseball its so slow and boring there's no passion in it
-Danguerrero_0
u must be out of your mind !!
-ming
Absolutely agree, Rounders was a game where both sexes could play against each other. It became very popular in girls schools and is often considered the ladies alternative to cricket... Cricket was played by men. Rounders by women (except in north America of course).
-Anti-crap-articles-man
thats wrong soccer is the best sport in the world
-Megin109
am sure, you are teenage american
-farewell
people who say cricket is not #2 sport are crazy..........
-Vijay Dhayalan
ya swimming is soo much better then soccer. it works your whole body!1
-vampireluver4eva
u are so gay and dangereous
-Cesar191st
i think that figure skating should one of the most dangerous sports because you are on one inch of a medal blade and you skate on the most slipperiest surface in the world. plus you are doing all kings of spins and jumps.
-Something
Take Basketball out from all asian countries, almost all South American countries and put there volleyball instead of Basketball and you see that basketball is not even close to be at first 4 to 5 sports in the world. Volleyball is also played as much both women and men... 275 nations in FIVB. Biggest world federation in the world...even more nations as in soccer...
By the way, im not a volleyball player or Beach volleyball player or fan... I like ice hockey
Pete
-Pete
hockey should be here somewere theres no way golf is better!
-Pumpkin
you are truly an idiot and cannot spell
-Bigk-nut
golf is ok
-Hugh
u need to get your facts right. basketball didn't come from netball. netball came from basketball.
Netball was created, originally as woman's basketball. And basketball was created in springfield (USA) by a Canadian. Naismith. it's undisputable.
secondly. no team sports players are paid like the nba. the only reason soccer(football) players make more on average cuz of other pro basketball leagues excluding the nba that bring the number down.
otherwise, if u look at a list of the top 50 most paid athletes in the world. nearly half are nba players.
and if u talk about bbal as a played sport. it has earned it's spot as second. basketball's the most played sport in the USA. It's also second in many asian countries. and is the most common sport in many eastern european countries.
-The_truth
Crickket is populer becuse of india is a stupid comment.... Cricket follwed in india, bangladesh, pakistan, shrilanka, afganistan, nepal like a religion.....also is most populer sport of australia, west indies, papua new guini, zimbabwe.......and second most populer in south africa, new zeeland, england, kenya, namibia,....... ICC has 107 member countries and cricket generates biggest revenue after soccer......
-Manonjadhav026
gay gay you are o gayyy
-Cesar191st
Yes but basketball was invented by a Canadian
-Blue5623
In Rugby you got over 100 countries that play it. I AF you got just 18 countries that play it. So the popular #1 is Rugby
-gregory
Darn it... No ice hockey... I see how it is... Golf but no ice hockey... And I agree with WOW and the others. He, or she, needs to learn about this one place where you can go get true info called a LIBRARY. But seriously ppl? Golf?!?!?!?! Cricket?!?!?!?!?!?!?! NO ICE HOCKEY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I brought it up first and I'm bringing it up again in the end. Ice hockey is awesome and idk why they didn't put that up as anything
-Thornton019
rugby is more popular than american football
-Hasan Imtiaz
Cricket zz d game to play......football izz quite gud too...and all other sports...well they r jus tym-pass methods!!
-Aj truley Indian
American football 'one of the most intensive contact sports'. What about ice hockey. much more contact in the great game
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
-Elzy
Okay, this guy must have made more than just one mistake. Look it up boy, basketball originated in Springfield, Massachusetts, not CANADA! And volleyball is from Holyoke, Massachusetts, you know how I know? I live thirty minutes North of there! The Basketball Hall of Fame is in Springfield. Most fans know it originated there in 1892 at the YMCA (now known as Springfield College).
-WOW
Two years ago rugby was the 3rd most popular sport in the world and now it doesn't even feature in this top 10? And when you go on to read more about cricket you mention Zimbabwe as one of the top teams in the world but there is no mention about South Africa who were recently no. 1 in all formats of the game (ODI. test and T20)??
-Aron
Do you know that The Rugby World Cup is the 3rd largest sporting event in the world
-gregory
and American Football is more popular than ping pong. What's your point? Actually basketball should probably be somewhere between #2 and #4 on this list. Baseball higher. Volleyball and tennis lower. Ping pong... how is this popular sports list complete? The methodology is seriously flawed. Rugby I doubt makes top 10, though.
-Noone of Consequence
WHY THE FUCK IS HOCKEY NOT ON HERE, im gonna popular my self, and then im gonna try and take that popular outa my jeans and mail it to you... so expect some feces
-Jason123
There are only 10 countries that are full members of the International Cricket Council. Yet basketball is played all over the world, and baseball is hugely popular all over North and South America, East Asia and Australia. According to this article FIBA has 200 member countries (impressive! since there are only 196 countries in the world).
-Noone of Consequence
The sports in #7, #9, #10 are the 3 most popular sports in the United States I am sure :)
-Janak
The most popular sports in United states in America is:-Baseball, Basketball, American Football, Hockey, UFC/MMA, Boxing, Soccer recently, NASCAR, Professional Wrestling, Tennis, Golf, Swimming, Extreme sports as Surfing and Skateboard.
-Embroidery digitizing
suck it hockey is better
-P51mustangrb
Hee Soccer is quickly becoming more popular in US!!
-Sangheon96
If you don't break a sweat, it's not a sporting event.
-MUH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
go to this link... get some knowledge...."FACT AND NOT FICTION"
p.s.- NFL ! did you find it in the list ! bahh! DUMB!
-goonerette
this is the worst list ever you got it wrong for usa its obviously whats on tv the most 1. football 2. baseball 3.basketball 4. hockey 5. golf
-comedystuff.webs.com
forgot one, badminton. :-P
-Chrpin2
Hahaha I love these comments! They all prove that nobody ever actually reads anything, nor does anybody ever think their opinion could be wrong. Despite this site stating, very clearly, that this survey is based on web traffic alone, the first commenter states "you got it wrong," the second "basketball should be number one," etc. Each comment is more ridiculous than the previous, until the very end, where the last commenter tries to make an intelligent argument about television ratings and soccer, for some reason. He or she cites statistics and proves their professional credibility, only to completely undermine it all again ("I retired 3 years ago"). I hope this site gets international traffic, because these comments will go a long way to showing that the world's opinions of Americans as loud, stupid, and ignorant are completely true. And even though I'm sure this sort of stupidity occurs in all countries, it's just doubly hilarious in America since we all seem to think we're the best at everything, and our opinions are more well informed than computer statistics about web traffic across the internet.
-Hokum
soccer 11!!! is not SOCCER IS FOOTBALL and AMERICAN FOOTBALL should call HANDBALL because its use with the hands!!
-Joelbarcelona888
Internet traffic.. Still very off I think. However for anybody outside of america posting here.. You got to sit back and think for a second.. When people outside of amercia think "most popular sport" they think about how many of the PARTICIPATE and PLAY in the game. HOWEVER the same question to an american and they think "TV RATINGS"....NOT PARTCIPATING. As a percentage america is one of the LOWEST percentages in terms of actually PHYSICALLY getting off the couch and actually PLAYING. Tired of the same excuses.. "Well I played when I was a kid" DOESN'T COUNT.... EVERYBODY PLAYS WHEN THEY ARE A KID.. What happens to EVERY SPORT as soon as the person leaves college..and for the record the lowest participated sport in america is our very own american football... Noone plays it. And for a country as big and as many people we only have a miserable 32 teams in the NFL... Shocking or what??
-Shuggy1
Well your a hypocrite for one thing since you clearly think you are really more intelligent than everyone else who has commented..but consider the fact that forums like this are created for the purpose of expressing opinions. And sports is DEFINITELY about individual opinion but yet you wanna comment about international opinions on America. Just a little advice..dont be a sheep that listens to everything you hear so much that you insult the very thing that you are..an American.. over a sports article. I have many points to make here but I hate typing. So I will make the obvious important statement...FOOTBALL is king in America hellooo? The Superbowl is the most watched event in Sports and there are more household names from the NFL than any other sport...and as far as "internet traffic" well ESPN covers the NFL more extensively than any other sport.. half of their anchors are listed as NFL specialists and anyone who wants to look up anything on football goes to espn. com. As this is not really a football website this would water down these stats to a decent degree wouldn't it? Everyone watches football.
-Ilpd2001
I totally disagree with this statement "Also the chosen networks and skill of anouncers make a sport more pleasureable and popular". I turn the sound down so I don't have to listen to these annoying jerks. They never shut up and analyze every damn play that happens. A constant waterfall of words. One of the worst offenders is baseball's Vin Scully.
-Rchart3
sorry i dont give what you think here in America its called football, because you can kick it too.
-Jschweitzer24
Football (NFL) is BY far the most watched sport on TV world wide, I worked for a conglomerate that crunched world wide ratings of sports for international commercial sales for 10 years, retired 3 years ago, and the super bowl had more than double the viewers world wide than any other single sporting event in the world...... Evan the world Cup..... Soccer hasnt beaten American Football in over 8 years...... FACT
-Nappious
OMG swimming is so not # 14 this can't be true!!
-Millermadelyn40
First of all let me state that I am a fan of most of the sports on this list, but I am first and foremost a fan of baseball so my amateur opinion may be bias. Ok the popularity of a sport [again in my amateur opinion] should be based on the following criteria- historical significance, number of youth and amateur participants, and in-person viewing pleasure. The popularity of a sport can be skewed enormously by televison as is with American football. Most viewers watch sports on television not in-person. The placement of microphones and cameras make a sport much more pleasureable to watch on television. Also the chosen networks and skill of anouncers make a sport more pleasureable and popular. These are my reasons for televison statistics not to be included for the criteria. If were talking historical significance no sport in America has more than baseball. This is undisputable by anyone so I will go into no further detail. Next, the number of youth and amateur participants also favor baseball. Second would be soccer followed by football and basketball. Some of you may disagree but this is my opinion. Last but not least is in-person viewing pleasure. Hockey and baseball would rank one and two respectively. Hockey obviously ranks first becasuse of its fast-paced can't miss a second action. Basketball is third for the same reasons but is jumped by baseball for its amazing atmosphere. An arena simply comes nowhere close in comparison to a professional or amateur ballpark. Football ranks in the middle or near the bottom of in-person viewing pleasure[ the tail-gaiting is the only enjoyable experierience of going to a football game]. The shear distance from the playing field and cold weather makes the sport unbareable to watch in-person. All in all I agree with this websites opinion of baseball being numer one, football being two, basketball being three, and hockey being four among popularity in American sports. Although soccer at eleven, tennis at fourteen, and boxing at sixteen is a disgrace. Thank you for reading.
Michael from the eastern shore of Maryland
-Don'tWorry
Were soccer because it was neer the top and now its number 11? thats dumb
-DGB9629
I bet you like wrestling a round with sweating men in tight shorts also. Well count me in captain boner.
-Jshit
WNBA didn't make the list. I don't understand. I love it and I'm not even a 6' 5" lesbian with nondescript facial hair.
-Jshit
Sidenote...
Just to note that recently the TV audience for England v United States (world cup),on both ABC & Univision combined,was an astounding 17 million, according to "Sports Media Watch".The 17.0 million USA v England viewing number is bigger than the first 4 games of the NBA Finals (14.1 million ,15.7 mil, 16 million and 16.4 million).Quite an accomplishment considering that the first four games of the NBA Finals have hit a six-year high in overnight ratings,with the exception of Game 1 --- which tied a six-year high.Game 5 of the NBA finals netted a viewing audience of 18.2 million. Soccer (football is definitely on the rise here).
-Shuggy1
This list is completely unrealistic. It's: 1) FOOTBALL........................................2) Baseball/Basketball 3) Hockey
-hawxrox09
good morning ! first of all get some proper information . NFL doesn't stand anywhere near the Association football. Association Football is King of all sports and always will be ...and the information that you have given is only limited to one country(USA).
Ask any kid about NFL (outside your nation)..... most of them never heard about it! and by the way you people didn't got any name and stole the name 'football'! :/
-Goonerette
Soccer, Tennis, and Golf should be above ice hockey.
-CB3
HOCKEY ROCKS!!!!!!!!
-Speedbump
you're the one who need to get some knowledge
check your link again
it doesn't say its the most watched
-Raimando10
basketball should be the number one ranking sport in america.
-david stevens
wrestling is the best!!!!!!!!!
-Coolawesome
Soccer can't be at 11 it should be some where in 4 spot.
soccer is the fastest growing sports in terms of popularity and TV viewing in USA.
It is extremely popular among teenagers and most played on college levels.
-Sccccccccer
no way! who made this list? its 1. football 2. baseball 3. basketball 4. hockey 5. soccer. this list is STUPID!
-Zafir
Your data is skewed by the following factors:
1) baseball games are played throughout the week and over a long season so fans will browse baseball internet sites more often than say football (played primarily on the weekends) or golf (major tournaments spread weeks apart) and
2) Pro-wrestling is not a sport.
-Anon
popular, Hockey is wayy better
-SpeedBump
Im pretty sure we are talkin about the most popular sports in america? dont be an idiot.
-Ilpd2001
well first off lacrosse is the fastest growing sport in america but to say baseball is americas past time it is not! lacrosse was americas first sport it should be in the top 5 to say the least it takes more then just being 7 feet tall or 300 pounds like in basketball and football you have to be finese and in amazing shape its not like soccer were you jog for 2 hours anybody who has played it or watched it will be able to back me up your getting beat with a 6 foot pole and controling a ball with a stick and if you don't think its hardor fun go out and try it if you don't think it should be in the top 5 then obviously you have a terrible taste in sports.
-Laxbro19
yeah tats d spirit man ...cricket zz d best
-AJ INDIAN
Lots of people in South Africa and Zimbabwe know about cricket as do Namibians. Last I looks England was part of Europe, it is also played in the Netherlands, Ireland and Scotland. You have to remember the sport is like a religion to 17% of the worlds population and that is just in one county that plays the game, its also the most popular sport of most popular summer sport in Australia (their national sport?), Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand, West Indies (Jamaica, Barbados etc), England and South Africa.
-Garry
Field hockey is awful, ice hockey is much better.
-Don't You Worry Child
Cricket is not just played in Europe. It's played all over Asia as well. It's very close to Soccer in terms of popularity.
-rac3318
Realy guys im from south africa and cricket 5day test are like watching paint dry , no real adrenlin
-Etienne Pretorius
how can cricket and volleyball beat basketball worldwide
-king J
no sport can match cricket in entertainment but the bad luck for cricket is that it is hard to understand and to play.. but will soon become no 1 after the introduction of t20 cricket.
-khaaan,,
With all do respect but, you are on a North American website... so technically it is called soccer. If this were a European or an Asian website this comment might be relevant.
-Guess?
Basketball rugby should be on there. i can't believe people play tennis XD
-plasmalolol
how can it be considered most popular on earth if not every country likes it, on earth indicates popular everywere
-Dan Koz
WHAT ABOUT RUGBY????
-CJ
Indeed..... To be really honest, I am a good player of both Football/Soccer and Cricket but if some one asks me to choose from these two games , I would defiantly go with Cricket. Its amaziiiinnnggg... Literally.. And secondly, cricket is very very technical game compare to Football/Soccer... If you have the knowledge and ability to play, then you rock !
-LaHoRi
Seriously, there is no what whatsoever, that Tennis has more players than Table-Tennis. The number of Table-Tennis players in China alone, would far our number the Tennis players world wide.
-Rob
Admit it..... cricket is 2nd most popular sports because of india's population..... We love Cricket......<3
-rvch7
Where is Ice Hockey?!?! :)
-Elzy
ha ha ha ! where badminton stands ...
-HAppy Releationship
first of all its not soccer its football................. surely an american have done this
-its football not soccer
its ninth
-idiot 5
You're 100% correct. Field hockey and cricket? They're almost as famous as me! Almost every nation/country plays the following sports, Soccer, Rugby, Basketball, blah blah blah. American Football comes no where near the top charts.
-Humanslushie
I thought it was 1. Soccer, 2. Baseball (lots of Latin American countries and East Asian countries play baseball more than soccer) and 3. Basketball.
-yeah
cricket 2nd most popular? where are you getting the data from? I'd say soccer is the most popular followed by field hockey or badminton
-Loh
you know indians treat cricket as a religion,and sachin(cricketer) as god.everyone in south africa and zimbabwe loves cricket. and in african countries like kenya and namibia love cricket and plays it regularly . in english colonies like england,ireland,scotland,netherlands, they love cricket and in indian subcontinent (with population over 20% of world population) treat as religion.and in west indies they love it.and in australia and newzealand the popularity is sky high
-Nishanth Reddy
Rugby is very Popular across the southern and northen hemispher eg super rugby 6nations heineken cup etc as well as, japan is big on it aswell, rugby 7's taking place all over the world and about every country has a team cricket is popular cause a bilion people in one country like it and its thier national sport , never field hockey that must be a mistake , but everyone has thier own opinion if this was based on geographic locations of the sport it would be #1 footbal #2 rugby #3 baketball
-Etienne Pretorius
cricket is the most amazing sports in the history of human kind..It should overtake futball coz its the most advanced , wonderful , and the most amazing sport..
-Shean
you are a bean
-George
its none its BADMINTON!
-daniel
cricket is the best game,a good player must have many talents to play cricket,cricket will be the no.1 popular game by 2020,because of the growth in popularity in new countries like ireland,nepal,afghanistan,etc
-Nishanth Reddy
Huh. Does this take into account games like Starcraft or League of Legends, sports which are very popular world-wide among the younger generations? (And yes, e-sports are technically sports)
-CSDragon
what abt basketball????? :(:(
-jeevan
sport popular in US doesn't means its famous in the whole world volleyball is a boring sports.
-Shani
lol you mad bro no one knows about rugby except few countries and usa
-Shani
cricket is going to be number one very soon
-DON
jdjdjdjdjkdshfpdsuyaifueruapvywp89ureq7w8ry-89wyt-8tv0q-7ev0t
-Ty Griffin
BASKETBALL!
-Basketballforthewin
Rugby is a great sport, and this sport dominates, and the world largest impact sport, STAMINA AGILITY STRENGTH ENDURANCE INTELLIGENCE this game is A ALL ROUNDER
-Irusha Kavinda Costa
A few countries? Almost evry country in the world particpates in in rugby
-Etienne Pretorius
#1 sport in the world is fishing
-whatsup
soc is the best
-jade
Cricket zz d most interesting and tactical game which req. lot of skills ....basketball n voleball r d games fo dumb-as*
n milk suckin babiee.
-Aj Indian
hey, football or soccer dogs,
hands forever. so basketball and basketball group forever
anytime, anywhere, as long as you have hands, basketball group is forever and strong
i am a chinese, only in chinese there are more than 300 million people loving and playing basketball !
-basketball hand
I expected soccer to be up there, but basketball doesn't even rank? I'm just surprised that field hockey and volleyball beat a sport that's so popular here in the US.
-Dibs
where is boxing?
-alex staniland
your retarted normal sports are popular for kids and adults and will always beat videogames
-brendan holden
You're dead wrong on the popularity of Rugby. It's most definitely not as popular as basketball. This is coming from someone who HATES basketball. Go ask a majority of Europeans and Chinese if they prefer basketball or rugby. You'll be surprised.
-Nottacolonial
ya cricket is the most popular game in india,pakistan,bangladesh,srilanka,australia,newzealand,southafrica,england,zimbabwe,nepal,ireland,west indies,ireland,etc
-Nishanth Reddy
press next
-stupidity
100 countries with each population of maximum 100 M not gonna make it number 1 its the cricket and football with is followed by the 1/3 population of the world
-Shani
Pretty sure the most popular sport in the world is something else which is not a sport really .
-Delethios
definitely forgot about Rugby, one of the most popular international sports and much more popular than basketball, American football, field hockey and a lot of these other sports on here. It's played internationally, has its own world cup and is about to be in the olympics.
-I'mnotgivingyoumyemail
soccer will remain the most popular sport in the world..... http://football-meets-cricket....
-Ankur Upadhyay
I am a big sports lover but i don't get it why american people thinks they created all sports and its football not soccer and cricket is not a version of soft ball all the world greatest sports were invented & started in England and are now famous around the world u take cricket and football they were invented by england but now football is more popular in the whole world and take cricket its the most popular game in sub-continent more popular than its in England so stop being so biased about american sports admit the worlds greatest sports were invented by England .
-Shani
hellll
-yo mamo
In Rugby you got over 100 countries that play it. In AF you just got 18 countries that play it. So the popular #1 is Rugby you can google ti
-gregory
This is based on fan attendance at an average, not the amount of people or countries who play it... pay attention
-Jschu
I agree!
-CJ
cricket is popular because there is only one nation watching it and that is india with a bilion people
-Etienne Pretorius
rugby should be 4th
-brendan holden
Click Next...
-Guest
How many people in Africa, South America and Europe know cricket let alone play it?? Formula 1 should by second by far you can walk down the streets of Nigeria and show a picture of Michel Schumacher and kids know who he is
-kris
What about Formula One racing? That is supposed to be one of the most popular world sports.
-Chuck Norris
brothers, let duck all those soccers
hey, football or soccer dogs,
hands forever. so basketball and basketball group forever
anytime, anywhere, as long as you have hands, basketball group is forever and strong
i am a chinese, only in chinese there are more than 300 million people loving and playing basketball !
-duck all soccers' mother
bhdfjjgdguyuighcgfifgtgjisdgyciysdufiysaredhfiudshifhuydsohfhdauoihfga
-Riley
i would say soccer goes around #2 and hockey would be #1.
-Alex
i freekin love cricket ,T20 cricket, watch it if u havent n ull love it for the rest of ur life
-carl
FOOTBALL already Developed in those area,and Countries
-Sanjoy_ghosh
SOCCER IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE THE MOST POPULAR SPORT IN THE "WORLD" CRICKET.............PLEASE! SOCCER IS A GAME OF "SKILL" WHEN YOU HAVE TO DRIBBLE 2 OR 3 DEFENDERS AT ONE TIME. "STYLE" HAVING TO CONTROL THE BALL EITHER WITH YOUR FOOT! THIGH! CHEST! OR HEAD! AND FOR YOU CRICKET PLAYERS NO HANDS! :-P "INTELLIGENCE" KNOWING WHEN TO PASS, DRIBBLE OR SHOOT ON GOAL! AND FOR YOU VIOLENT PEOPLE OUT THERE, IT CAN BE THAT TO! WATCH OUT FOR THOSE KICKS, ELBOWS, AND HEAD-BUTTS :-D IT CAN BE A GAME OF FINESSE! OR AN ALL OUT WAR! AND THAT'S WHY "SOCCER" IS THE MOST PLAYED! WATCHED! AND IDOLIZED! SPORT IN THE WORLD....
-Nitzermode
field hockey and Cricket are crap
-Cameron-BNP
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 100,000,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE-WEST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.
-KASHYAPSAHIL10
To be factual soccer has 3.5 billion fans but cricket has only 2 billion
I love soccer but cricket is growing on me
-Alsalsk
THAT ALL INFORMATION THAT WAS SHOWN ABOVE IS WRONG SOCCER IS NOT PLAYED IN AMERICA,IT IS RUGBY THAT WAS PLAYED IN AMERICA.BUT IT IS RIGHT THAT THERE IS SOME FANS OF FOOTBALL IN SOUTH AMERICA,BUT YOU GUYS BELIEVE IT OR NOT THERE IS MORE FANS OF CRICKET IN THE WORLD BECAUSE IT IS ONLY ONE KIND OF PURE GAME THAT IS PLAYED NOT LIKE FOOTBALL WHICH LEADS TO MANY NAMES LIKE-RUGBY,AMERICAN FOOTBALL,GRIDIRON FOOTBALL,GAELIC FOOTBALL & AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL THAT WAS DIFFERENT KIND OF FOOTBALL NOT SOCCER.
-SAHIL
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 100,000,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA,NEW ZEALAND,WEST INDIES)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE-EAST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.
Like
Reply
-SAHIL
The most popular sport in the world is not based on opinions by people with no knowledge! It should be based on evidence and facts! The most popular sport on the planet is football. It is the number 1 by a distance mile. No other sport comes close, there is simply no comparison! Here are the facts with population figures.
It is the number 1 sport in Europe, population 857 million.
It is the number 1 sport in Africa, population 1.1 billion
It is the number 1 sport in middle east, population 300million
It is the number 1 sport in south America, population 400 million
It is the number 1 sport in Mexico, population 110 million
It is number 1 sport in total to countries with combined figures of 2.9 billion people!
The rest of the world it is number 2 or number 3 sport. There is no comparison to any other sport!
Cricket is nowhere close and is only number1 sport in 2-3 countries. Football is number 1 sport in over 100 countries!!
I hope the above facts have finished this debate once and for all!
-Amo_11
FOOTBALL LEADS TO MANY NAME LIKE-IN AMERICA & OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD IT IS KNOWN AS GAELIC FOOTBALL & IN EUROPE IT IS KNOW AS ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL.SO,HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT FOOTBALL IS THE MOST FAMOUS GAME IN THE WORLD!!
-SAHIL
Not all americans, I'm not american but i've been there and a lot of people(kid's and teens mind you) don't wear "armour" as they usaully sprawl on the dirt trying to grab the ball. It is a little fun, but not like "soccer" football.
-Thatoneguy511
that's the difference between Indian public to others countries.ha ha
-Sanjoy_ghosh
Test
-test
Most Frequently Cited Ranked Lists
1) Football: 3.3-3.5 billion fans (Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas, etc.)
2) Cricket: 2-3 billion fans (India, UK, Pakistan, Asia, Australia, etc.)
3) Field hockey: 2-2.2 billion fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia)
4) Tennis: Around 1 billion fans (Europe, Americas, Asia)
5) Volleyball: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Americas, Australia)
6) Table tennis: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas)
7) Baseball: Around 500 million fans (US, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic)
8) Golf: Around 400 million fans (US, Canada, Europe)
9) Gridiron (American football): 390-410 million fans (US mainly)
10) Basketball: Not more than 400 million fans (US, Canada mainly)
-Razdan
uh i beg to differ
-Trillion20
I'm sory to tell you tha wont be hapenig...
Footbal host more nations than the united nations... (in FIFA the uk is Scotland, northen, ireland, wales and england and Israel and palestine are both members)
And the truth is that 20 years ago I'm not sure footbal was sutch a global femomena... But today ist grown in africa, asia, japan, heavily in russia, ukraine and whole the former eastern block (maybe except for the kazakistany holove cicling)
-Miguelfpaula
I am a die-hard & radical fan of cricket from India. I always loved this game from my childhood. But some people used to say that cricket is limited only within a few nations. But recently I came to know that international cricket council has reached to a status of 114-member nations. I was amazed to find that. Now I am more amazed to find that its the 2nd most popular sport in the world. Cricket has recently qualified for Asian Games. There has been also talks of getting a chance in the Olympics. Although I love soccer, but still I hope that cricket would overtake all other games within next 20 years.
-Arka
Whi is the idiot that runs this site that dose not consider fishing and darts as a sport
-Aaronc345
I was wrong soccer is the most popular sport
-Hugh
i love swimming the best, you get to race people and you don't get sweaty. also you cant just buy it at a store like other sports because you cant buy a pool.
-samantha
football is a wimp sport and soccer is for everyone i bet u ur american cuse americans r gay and wimps
-Cupcake
football is the most popular and second is criket
-Yashnmishra
No offense or anything but I disagree that badminton should be placed in 4th place or even near it. I love badminton, however it is far too easy a sport. I remeber I was in 2nd grade, when I started playing it with my dad on the maadan (playground) in India. Now moving on to table tennis. Table tennis is a sport of concentration and reflex, however it does not require any other skills where as in Cricket for example, you have to keep an eye on the ball, "feel it" etc. You have to be a good runner, fielder etc etc. So although table tennis and badminton are great sports, there are better ones. However, I do agree that badminton/tabletennis beats American Football by a long shot. (Again this is strictly my opinion and I had no intentions of offending someone).
-Fakeemail
5 years ago Cricket wouldn't have been 2 on that list ! Period ! In fact, even in the Asian sub-continent Cricket's popularity was waning. But it's newest 3 hour avatar - 20/20 Cricket - has fast become, hands down, one of the most thrilling sports out there on the planet. It's got heart, art, skill, war, strategy, athleticism, power, finesse, cunning, courage under fire (& big money) ... all rolled in one nail-biting bite-sized package. Played with tremendous spirit (no fake dives here) and respect for the opposition. After more than 300 years of chopping and changing the rules n formats of the game, the guys that make them have finally got it right ... And that's why cricket's gonna have a lotta new fans the world over, faster than any other sport in the future.
-Josehilton
I think you are a great ful. Cricket is being played within a few countries, but about 85% of the total population of the world are familiar with football. So, football should be the no. 1. It seems to me that you hails from India and you are a dying fan of cricket & that's why you are saying so.
-Maria
in cricket u hit a ball and score runs, in football every single player is matched up against at least one but usually several players throughout the game. Little battles definitely goes to football
-captfalcon
The entire world, except USA, calls it Football. Why the hell do you title it as Soccer? Moron.
-Lal
Are you 2? taler 3 comments collapsed Collapse Expand soccers for girls cricket is those gay england peopkle football is for men like soccer in the nationals theres women foot never in n f l so yaa.And american football is nothing compared to football and rugby, 2 MAJOR sports where i'm from.Imagine a grown man kicking a hard,wet ball into your stomach/groin/head, going 25 miles per hour.Or a bunch of men jumping on you with no stopping until your injured or the ball's not with you anymore. American football is WEAK as hell compaired to these sports,so go do your research before you comment next time Correct form of your comment:Soccer's for girls(not true/girls sometimes play but the're not as good) cricket is those gay english people(I'm british, I play cricket, a little and you're flagged).Football is for men.Like soccer,in the naionals there's women foot never in nfl so ya( I'm not even sure what the hell that even means, but I'm guessing it's saying girls don't play american football.Sorry mispelled form, Lol.
-Thatoneguy511
Brother, you are absolutely right. But many people don't wanna understand.those.
-Monica
Cricket? Really?! WOW!
-Alex
Thrilling? War? Heart? Athleticism? Power? Tremendous Spirit? Respect for Opposition? Skill? Strategy? Finesse? That sounds like Rugby- does it not? And i think Rugby is rising faster. plus i can add more traits to Rugby TEAMMWORK, comunication, Humbleness and... Bravery!!!
-Rugby
i love t20 cricket its all time thrill and nerves
-ab john
Wow.
So, Judo which is the 2nd most popular and practiced sport in europe and south america and the number one most popular and practiced sport in asia (this is denoted in several polls online and offline), doesn't even make your list while sports like american football which isn't even viewed all around the world somehow does.
Hmmm . . . something seems fishy in your data! Maybe you are denoting the popularity by gamblers who will hit the same internet site over and over and over because they have money on the game :) This would make more sense due to the flaw in the method described of not discounting repeat visits from the same person or ip address.
-CompletelyConfused
Football is a battle, Cricket is War. Football has more talking refrences because of tactics on display, but there are many little battles within a cricket match.
-Muthuvel Subbarayan
Where is rugby on this list? All former English colonial states have gigantic programs.
-Baseball.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...
-J P
You forgot hockey which covers Us Canada Russia and Europe
-Anthonysharp 18
YOUR SOO DUMB THE REASON CRICKET IS NUMBER 2 BECAUSE ITS PLAYER IN A COUNTRY LIKE INDIA WITH HAS OVER A BILLION PEOPLE BUT ITS NOT POPULAR ANYWHERE ELSE SOCCER IS KNOWN IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD GO TO THE AMERICAS NO ONES ABOUT CRICKET LIKE WTF? ITS MAD BORING ITS JUS A RETARDED FORM OF BASEBALL
-Galego
I'm from India only and definitely cricket sucks and just because of some stupid crazy people India has not become a multi-sports country. Cricket has ruined entire India and Indian sports and this is the only reason India fails to compete at the world level in real International Sports. There should be a limit for everything, not stupidity. Go and visit the world no one even knows the name of cricketers around the world. Not even that stupid so called 'God of cricket' Sachin is known to anyone outside the sub-continent except some handful people.
-Rajeev
No one plays cricket in the u.s. If u ask most of the people from where I am from about cricket they would have no clue what you where talking about.
-Hunt
This 'ranking' is completely subjective right? Is there a source for any of these? Because I strongly disagree with this ranking. Why does Rugby not feature in the top 10? It is, without a shadow of a doubt, far more played and spectated than American Football. The American Football fanbase is almost exclusively restricted to the USA and Canada. Rugby on the other hand is a popular sport in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, France, Italy, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Romania, Netherlands, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Argentina, Uraguay, USA, Canada, Georgia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Taiwan and is also growing at a considerably greater rate in popularity in many other countries such as Hong Kong, India, Thailand, Singapore, Russia, India to name a few.
-Robbie
Ok, my opinion is that Football(soccer for you americans and such) must be FAR more entertaining than cricket, rugby or any other sport because the sport has about 3.2 (or so i read) billion people watching and playing each day(not to mention all the others in the world cup). So in conclusion to my comment soccer must be farly more entertaining to me and ^ that many others
-Thatoneguy511
most popular sports... blah blah blah... I'm outta here! Why are sports so boring on this webpage? I'm only five years old, stupid!
-Me
not true...my family is from Guyana and they love cricket as well as soccer...it is known in S.A.
-Jacksonnapier
I'm from Hong Kong and I play basketball, so WHY is basketball left out?
-noname
yeah right anoymous soccer is the most famous sport in the world ....go to south america or african and i mean the rest of africa beside south africa and tell me how many actualy know let alone play cricket
-SOccer101
Basketball and baseball are not just confined to USA. Russians, Chinese, Spanish, Argentinians, French, and Canadians love basketball. Baseball is huge throughout most of Latin America, the Caribbean, Japan, and South Korea.
-Reza
Now I know its flawed if Judo isn't even the most popular sport in Japan!
-CompletelyConfused
whats so interesting about putting a ball through a basket? It does not show any talent.
-Shams
Same here same there. Badminton also rules!
-Unknown
cricket sucks!!! 10-20 years down the line, there will be only one country playing this sport and you know the country name.
-ihatecricket
I seriously don't take this true.
Like field hockey is not that important compared to tennis.
There you go that's my opinion
-Arudshii
Even though US is the only place in the world that plays baseball. How is it third you silly? And basketball isn't that popular
-Paul Blutton?
cricket is the best
-zia
That is madness! they are not remotely the same. When are you going to fix it? It should be the #3 sport
-gas
#1 basketball
#2 Soccer
-Malasia
yah you go gal/or dude srry idk ur gender but ur really right in the head (^.^)
-Gosoocer
Football is and will always be number 1 and i say that with all due respect to all other sports:D
-Guest
Some bangali commenting here fo "foccer".....go and play itin kolkata ....rank 159 th..hehee....... Firstly win some matches against higher rank teams and then talk about it.....saff game championns....hehe
-Manonjadhav026
At a time cricket was very boring and it took many days to play a single match. But after introducing the ODI and t20 format, it becamed very much popular in many countries of the world and that's why cricket has been listed in no.2 although many people from south and north America are unfamiliar with this game.
-Adiv
I really don't see amy bowling in any of these lists...
-Meme
yes ur right arka, i also hope cricket will be most populer game after 20 years.
-Raju
I've made up a list of the top 10 most popular sports websites which I think you might like, also i made up top 10 categories in a bunch of other stuff at
www.toplisthomepage.com
.
-James
so nobody thinks tennis is good ?
-king of the world
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 1,220,200,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA,WEST INDIES,NEW ZEALAND)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE-WEST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.EVEN FOOTBALL IS ONLY & MOSTLY PLAYED IN EUROPE BUT CRICKET IS PLAYED IN ASIA,AFRICA & SOME PARTS OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & IN CARIBBEAN PARTS LIKE BERMUDA,WEST INDIES ALSO. FOOTBALL LEADS TO MANY NAME LIKE-IN AMERICA & OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD IT IS KNOWN AS GAELIC FOOTBALL & IN EUROPE IT IS KNOW AS ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL.SO,HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT FOOTBALL IS THE MOST FAMOUS GAME IN THE WORLD!!
-SAHIL
why is rugby not on here? It should be #1 or #2!!
-DSENNETT98
i live in india i think india cricket is no1 but football is catching many world live club event are telecasted .cricket will only be famous of 2020 other format like test cricket ans 5050 are ridiculous . football will always be no1 world sport .
-Ravi Mathur
I respectfully suggest the compilers of this list take the site down as I have never read such rubbish. Its as if you picked the most popular sports for each country out of a hat. Basketball most popular in France, Germany, Brazil ahead of football(Soccer)????? Winter sports popular in Tropical Brazil???? Baseball not even played in the UK but gets a place in its most popular sports but no place for the 2/3 most popular sport rugby, cricket not in the Australian top 10??? Complete and utter garbage
-Mcaiston
volleyball suuuuckss
-Hope kelley
Arieldiedinsane i totaly agree, VOLLEYBALL SHOULD BE #1!! volleyball is played in almost all countries, and i'm from America and baseball and football are stupid, i mean really where is rudby. that is a real sport but i def. think volleyball should be before table tennis when its not even a real sport what muscles to u really need? THUMBS!?!?!?! i mean really volleyball is played everywhere and by both men and women (me) play it! so get off the list baseball and foot ball, move cricket down so volleyball can be #2, cricket u go down and be #9 tennis move u[p to #3, feild hocky #6, baseall out, football out rugby in #4, tennis #5! i just fixed the list!
-Maya C.
us doesn't play hockey.
-Guest
On the soccer article, the 2008 European Champions were Spain, and not Italy as the article states.
-Gianchivas
u know Major League Soccer(it;s american Soccer /Football League,watch this League in Internet then u know the popularity of Soccer in America.Football/Soccer the No.1 Sport in the World
-Sanjoy_ghosh
They say whoever play cricket is dumb and whoever watch and follow it is the world most dumbest creature ever.
-Baialsh
Hello
-Je Suis
Cricket sucks soccer iswere it's at
-Cricket sucks
buddy what do you mean tiny countries ? Aus,Ind,Pak are not tiny in any respect. if you are speaking land area only Brazil is bigger in south america i you are speaking population no country comes close. If you are speaking cultural and militaristic impact on world then those tiny asian countries that you refer to are giants.
-Vilander
surprised to see volleyball at 5.
-Volleyball?
no Football is the most popular Sports in the World,how many countries played cricket?just 17coutries under the ICC ranking.but in FIFA ranking 208Countries Played FOOTBALL/SOCCER
-Sanjoy_ghosh
no ur all completly wrong the best ever sport if RUGBY ok its all about RUGBY not the shitty game of football or the boring game of cricket ok its all about RUGBY
-Rupertthompson
in History,present time and also Future FOOTBALL(SOCCER) all Time Top of the list,World Most Popular Sport is FOOTBALL,Then Cricket in no.2 spot
-Sanjoy_ghosh
Cricket is most certainly popular & extensively played in the West Indies. At present West Indies is the reigning 20-20 Cricket World Champion. West Indies also won the limited overs World Cup in 1975 and 1979, the ICC Champions' mini world'Cup in 2004, the Stanford Superseries 20/20 in 2008, the t20World Cup in 2012 and reigned supreme from 1976 to 1995 in every Test series, with merely 1 loss for that 20 year period. I do not think that England, Australia or any Asian country has such an ilustrious record at all levels of play. True enough Australia has won the limited overs World Cup 4 times. But what about t20 and Tests?
-Ian Senior-morrison
no my friends FOOTBALL always Still in the No.1Sports Forever.
-Sanjoy_ghosh
arka as u said above..hoping that cricket would overtake all other games within 20 yrs...that wish cannot come to past while football is still alive. you just have to accept that..
-india
soccers for girls cricket is those gay england peopkle football is for men like soccer in the nationals theres women foot never in n f l so yaa
-taler
What do you mean? Everyone loves field hockey.
-anonymous
I will like to ask you this question how many of you know how many states volleyball is strong in?
-Amarieeholmes
VOLLEY BALL N TENNIS ALL THE WAY 2THUMBSUPS GO HARD OR GO HOME
-Arieldiedinsane
I agree with
anonymous Cricket is the most popular sport in history Not (Football) Soccer
-Hugh
Crickets popularity never comes down.... It increses consistantly after indias wc victory in 1983... And now a stage comes when we can say that it cricket is a religion in india.... T20 cricket is a good entertainment and thrill but test is the best and will remains as a prime format of the game......
-Manojjadhav
This is pretty obvious, almost everyone here in Toronto watch Cricket plus I LOVE cricket!! I think Cricket and Soccer will become head to head in the future, looking at how many people around the world watches it.
Baseball and Basketball are only popular in North America, mainly just America.
-Mackz
cricket will be on nooooooooooooooooooooooooo 1 very soon due to 20 20
-Lahori Boy0003
What? Yes. They do. It's called the NHL and it's the 4th most popular sport in the US.
-Emailrochelle
This report is ridiculous. Basketball is only popular in U.S? Give me a break. Basketball is very popular in China, Spain, Argentina, several former USSR countries, etc. In China alone, the final game for CBA (chinese basketball association) 2012 drew 80 million viewers.
-patrick.Z
Football/Soccer Always No.1 Sports Forever
-Sanjoy Ghosh
cricket is a one of the vast game
-Deepaksinghb7
But I am home...
-Adrian
i love IPL T20 cricket
-niyaz
Right!
-Indonesia
because basketball is only big in Canada and US
-Rayjaones
Forcing your belief in sports is liking forcing your religion on someone. Let everyone like the sport they want to like. I like baseball, and I know a lot of you are going to hate on it, but frankly, I don't give a shit.
-Madison Ford
Thanks for the feedback Kovana. Currently, the stats for rugby and american football are clubbed in single category as american football in our database. This is the becase the service we use (Alexa) to analyze visitor traffice stats has them listed under american football. We will be manually separating the stats for the two sports (and also some other categories) and then visitors should see the correct results.
-Admin
I love FOOTBALL(SOCCER)HOCKEY,TENNIS.Then Cricket,and FOOTBALL is the most popular sport in the World
-Sanjoy_ghosh
ahhhhh, Rugby??????????????
-Rugby
Cheerleading is a sport too!
-anon
well cricket and football( its not soccer) are both expanding in asia and cricket is gaining popularity in america too especially t 20 but football will always be ahead in numbers and die hard fans as it is sport laced with emotions and fierce competition which the gentelmens game cananot emulate though it can come close.
-Nishant
Badminton has to be placed in the top five or ten sports played and watched.
-Rrrsydneyx6
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 100,000,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(INDIA,PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA,WEST INDIES,NEW ZEALAND)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE-WEST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.EVEN FOOTBALL IS ONLY & MOSTLY PLAYED IN EUROPE BUT CRICKET IS PLAYED IN ASIA,AFRICA & SOME PARTS OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & IN CARIBBEAN PARTS LIKE BERMUDA,WEST INDIES ALSO.
-SAHIL
But these Asian countries were the first civilization of the world. When the light of civilization didnot reach in Europe and America, these Asian countries were already developed. They can build houses at that time but the Europeans and the Americans rather used to live in caves.Whatever the condition is now with the asian countries, we shouldn't forget that- the history repeats itself. So we shouldn't underestimate anyone or any country.
-Yana
ignorant bitch do you not see what the most popular sport in the world is.im sure you would disagree with the opinion of the 5 billion people who play,watch and love soccer.
-Yungcza509
if u remove india from cricketing map . Cricket as a sport will be crippled then . Football is tough to play dats y other countries evn die to qlfy 4 a wrld cp.
-Siddharthzende
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 100,000,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA,WEST INDIES,NEW ZEALAND)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE EAST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.
-KASHYAPSAHIL10
Oh so because YOU said it it must be true? Fool
What you need to remember is football is already being played EVERYWHERE and is not developing like cricket.
-Dean Williamson
Spotted two more major errors. Basketball is apparently the most popular sport in Germany and Hong Kong. Absolute rubbish. It's easily soccer in both countries. In fact soccer is the most popular sport in the vast majority of countries in the world.
-Robbie
why rugby should be up there
-Alexanderdrewblackmore
The game cricket is even losing its popularity in India , younger generation is coming eagerly to play and watch soccer more than cricket.cricket is not a popular game in whole Asia,only the subcontinent people like it .anybody in china or Iran know this game
-Jainkjmd
just so u know canada has a football league too called the cfl..
-lucic66
Exactly Kovana....American sports are nothing...I am an American, but we got nothing here.....sucks
-quest
hahaha you moron it requires no skill at all and it is incredibly dull to watch. How can you say other nations are wusses when you americans are such pussys you have to put armour on to play, there is no armour in rugby. americans are the biggest fags in the world and FOOTBALL not "soccer" as you retards call it is BY FAR the most popular sport in the world. You don't need a ball to play either, only a tin can or a bottle if that is all that's available
-paddywan
In my country, people never know cricket. But, everywhere in my country playing Soccer
-Indonesia
this is rubbish.....golf has to be here, f1 is anyday higher than cricket and so is tennis. cricket is played in in 17countries comeon. that sucks golf and tennis are played in over 40 countries
-Jacob
FOOTBALL IS LEADS TO MANY NAME LIKE-IN AMERICA IT IS KNOWN AS RUGBY OR GRIDIRON FOOTBALL,IN EUROPE IT IS KNOWN AS ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL & IN AUSTRALIA IT IS KNOWN AS AUSTRALIAN RULES FOOTBALL.SO HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT FOOTBALL IS THE MOST FAMOUS SPORT IN THE WORLD!!!!
-SAHIL
no my Friends FOOTBALL/SOCCER IS THE MOST POPULAR SPORTS FOREVER,one qes to u HOW MANY COUNTRIES played cricket,Even FOOTBALL played in every coutry.
-Sanjoy_ghosh
LOL! :)
-Guest
I think the owners of this web site need to read up about what sports people play and watch outside the United States. "Football" means different things to different people. In Sydney, Australia it means Rugby League. In Melbourne it means Australian Rules, in Vancouver it means Canadian Football, whereas in Christchurch, New Zealand going to the football means only one thing: Rugby Union. How Hockey (OK, for you Americans, that's Field Hockey) made it into the top 5 is beyond me. Probably something to do with India and Pakistan playing the game, but still, how do you account for the lack of money and television coverage for the game? And Basketball being the #1 sport in Italy? Give me a break! Soccer (Calcio in Italy) easily eclipses Basketball, Cycling and Motorsports there.
-Gekko
This is nice compilation, based on the number of people watching these sports , yes this this ranking makes sense .
I did another kind of compilation , Sports ranking by country.. where we list all the official rankings on popular sports for each countries >
http://sportsmaths.com/index.p...
-SportsMathS
US yeah lol.
-Guest
what is 20/20 format? How to play cricket by the way.. hahaha. I never seen anybody play cricket here. How can it be the most popular sport. We play all the abovementioned sports but cricket. LoL
-Sada
No, the first major civilizations in the world were Sumerians, Egyptians, Minoans, and Assyrians. India and East Asian societies didn't arise until hundreds of years after these ones. The Fertile Crescent and Mediterranean world witnessed the most advanced early civilizations. These places are where agriculture was first developed, as was the wheel, chariot, and writing -- the cornerstones of early civilization.
-Reza
Cricket rules ...... And so india..... Fuck you cricket hater
-football hater
I coincide with you :D.
-Fakeemail
CRICKET IS THE MOST POPULAR SPORT IN THE WORLD SECOND IS FOOTBALL SOCCER
-anonymous
cricket! american football, basketball & baseball
-name
@gas: They are both games descended from Rugby school of rules.
-J P
i will ram your mom at night if you dont shut the duck up bitch
-Dopeboy
u r so stupid. D whole caribbean support cricket n soccer n other sports too. Plus test match is one of the most challenging sport out there. it test the mind,fitness of a person,patience,ability,skill,endurance etc. its not like soccer wen u have half time n a player can get subsitute. n plus dat only happends like wat maby a day's play but test match happens 5 days straight. its jus awsome dude.
-Azim
The World's best/ most watched/ most played/ popular sports: football (soccer) Basically, played and known in all countries around the globe.
Cricket: Played and watched in few countries.
I NEVER HEARD OF CRICKET AND I LL NEVER PLAY THAT SPORTS!
SOLUTION: FOOTBALL (SOCCER) is DA BEST!!
-Sangheon96
nah football (soccer) is way more popular and is played by like everyone in every country cause all u need is a ball, the only reason why cricket is near the top is because it's the most popular sport in India, nowhere else. but yeh football (soccer) all the way. :D
-Mehstuffhappens
Rugby is actually catching up, and i like the game better than soccer.
-Muthuvel Subbarayan
soccer is boring?
Please how long does a cricket game last?
-Miguelfpaula
Cameron-BNP is a bullshit.
-Adiv
why basketball is not belong in top 5?
-Borladojomel
but still cricket sucks -.-' and india is kinda a horrible contry
-cricket hater
cricket not a popular sport
-Sanjy_ghosh
dude u have obviously not seen or played real badminton
-Pugrunner
i like cricket very much but football is very bbbbbbbbbbbbboooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnggggggggggg
-Coolkingkhan22
i am sure that you ate from usa
-bharat
Riley Stark of teepee creek alberta would like yo to come to his house
-Riley
OMG, Thats not soccer, thats FOOTBALL.!
(-.-) noob Americans.
-awsomeCaptan
5 years ago Cricket wouldn't have been 2 on that list ! Period ! In fact, even in the Asian sub-continent Cricket's popularity was waning. But it's newest 3 hour avatar - 20/20 Cricket - has fast become, hands down, one of the most thrilling sports out there on the planet. It's got heart, art, skill, war, strategy, athleticism, power, finesse, cunning, courage under fire (& big money) ... all rolled in one nail-biting bite-sized package. Played with tremendous spirit (no fake dives here) and respect for the opposition. After more than 300 years of chopping and changing the rules n formats of the game, the guys that make them have finally got it right ... And that's why cricket's gonna have a lotta new fans the world over, faster than any other sport in the future.
-ChikaCasey
american football ain't on here cuz it takes too much talent to play.. in rugby u can't make exciting one handed grabs for TDs barely gettin 2 feet in bounds, or making a catch while ur getting smacked in midair.. american football is the most exciting sport to watch but tha rest of tha world r wusses and can't play it
-Dizzle_10
Where is Netball?
-Technology
NO FOOTBALL IS THE MOST POPULAR GAME THEN CRICKET
-VSHK100
hope you are seein all the like you are gettin Hope Kelley
-Trillion20
I <3 Soccer! Its amazing!
-Alex
It doesnt matter. soccer will always be at the top. i mean who actually cares about american football outside Canada and USA? Face the truth, american football can't exceed soccer (football)
-Sangheon96
hahahha..... duck you.... it's obvious you don't know about sport
-X ComPointer
No basketball is huge in Europe, South America, and China too.
-Reza
Are you 2?
taler 3 comments collapsed Collapse Expand soccers for girls cricket is those gay england peopkle football is for men like soccer in the nationals theres women foot never in n f l so yaaAnd american football is nothing compared to football and rugby, 2 MAJOR sports where i'm from.Imagine a grown man kicking a hard,wet ball into your stomach/groin/head, going 25 miles per hour.Or a bunch of men jumping on you with no stopping until your injured or the ball's not with you anymore. American football is WEAK as hell compaired to these sports,so go do your research before you comment next time Correct fom of your comment:Soccer's for girls(not true/girls sometimes play but the're not as good) cricket is those gay english people(I'm british, I play cricket, a little and you're flagged).Football is for men.Like soccer,in the naionals there's women foot never in nfl so ya( I'm not even sure what the hell that even means, but I'm guessing it's saying girls don't play american football.
-Thatoneguy511
According to popularity census ranked list, here are the sports that ranked highest on sports that kids and adults consider their favorite
1) Football/Soccer
2) Basketball (highest increase)
3) Golf
4) Baseball
5) Tennis
-Elias Sports Bureau
Hahahhahaahahahhahah Cricket! #LOL
-Dsfiohag
i love cricket.......................nd i love t20 cricket its give more enteriment..............2nd i love football nd cricket is last ball game...........its give every fight
-niyaz
Soccer(Football) is high up there, but no Cricket is the Most popular sport out there. Besides the majority of North America, most the world is into cricket rather then soccer.
I play soccer, so trust me it's not like I'm only seeing 1 side of the story. been playing soccer for 8 years, but the facts are the facts
-TheRage
U must show The World Cup FOOTBALL,
-Sanjoy_ghosh
I love soccer
-Julian
WHERE ARE YOU GETTING YOUR FACTS BRO? FROM AN "INSECT" :-P SOCCER IS # 1 BY FAR! CRICKET HAS AN ESTIMATED 2-3 BILLION FANS WORLD WIDE AS TO SOCCER AKA (FUTBOL) HAS 3.3 - 3.5 WORLD WIDE! BIG DIFFERENCE....
-Nitzermode
Cricket is the most popular sports in the world its more entertaining then football..... at the first it should be Cricket and the second one should be Soccer....
-Prince..
Football the most popular sports forever
-Sanjoy_ghosh
In the hell
-m's
The reason why cricket is so popular with the South Asian countries is that it is the only sport in which they can excel. Their world football rankings and olympic medal tally proves this.
-sporty
I THINK THAT YOU GUYS FORGOT ABOUT CRICKET AS I TOLD YOU GUYS THERE IS 1,220,200,000+ FANS IN INDIA & IT IS ALSO PLAYED IN MANY COUNTIES LIKE(PAKISTAN,BANGLADESH,AUSTRALIA,IRELAND,NETHERLAND,ENGLAND,SRI LANKA,AFGHANISTHAN,SOUTH AFRICA,ZIMBAWE,CANADA,SCOTLAND,KENYA,WEST INDIES,NEW ZEALAND)IN WORLD CUP FORMATS & IT ALSO START DEVELOPING IN MIDDLE-WEST OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & SOUTH AMERICA.EVEN FOOTBALL IS ONLY & MOSTLY PLAYED IN EUROPE BUT CRICKET IS PLAYED IN ASIA,AFRICA & SOME PARTS OF THE EUROPE,NORTH AMERICA & IN CARIBBEAN PARTS LIKE BERMUDA,WEST INDIES ALSO. FOOTBALL LEADS TO MANY NAME LIKE-IN AMERICA & OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD IT IS KNOWN AS GAELIC FOOTBALL & IN EUROPE IT IS KNOW AS ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL.SO,HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT FOOTBALL IS THE MOST FAMOUS GAME IN THE WORLD!!
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-SAHIL
YEAH RIGHT YOU WISH
-Coolme_911
PEOPLE KEEP ON BITCHING ABOUT THERE FAV SPORTS NOT BEING UP THERE....FIRST LOOK A COUNTRY POPULATIONS THE REASON WHY CRICKET IS FIRST ITS BECAUSE ITS HUGE IN INDEA WITCH HAS MORE THAN A BILLION PEOPLE FOLLOWED BY OTHER NATIONS LIKE AUSTRALIA UK ETC... BUT IT WILL NEVER BE BIG AS SOCCER BECAUSE IN THE AMERICAS MOST OF EUROPE AFRICA NO ONE CARES ABOUT IT...ABOUT THE PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT HOW RUGBY SHOULD BE HIGHER THAN AMERICAN FOOTBALL TRUTH IS YES RUGBY IS PLAYER IS MORE NATIONS BUT AMERICAN FOOTBALL IS HUGE IN AMERICA WITCH HAS 300+ MILLION PEOPLE WHILE THE RUGBY IS ONLY "SEMI" BIG IN COUNTRIES WITH NOT EVEN HALF OF AMERICAS POPULATION JUST BECAUSE ONE SPORT IS PLAYED MORE COUNTRIES DO SENT MEAN ITS BIGGER YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE POPULATION...SOCCER IS HUGE EVERYWHERE IS MOST COUNTRIES IS 1 IF NOT ITS 2 SOCCER HAS BRAZIL (200 MILLION) RUSSIA 100+ MILLION GETTING REALLY BIG IN CHINA ALL OF EUROPE AND SOUTH AMERICA 75% OF AFRICA ALL OF MIDDLE EAST GETTING BIG IN USA/CANADA SO FOR THE INIDIANS SAYING CRICKET WILL BE NUMBER 1 STOP DREAMING PLEASE
-SEPMV
US is NOT the only place in the world that plays baseball. Practically all of Latin America and the Caribbean plays it too. As does Canada, Japan and South Korea. Basketball is immensely popular in China -- a country with over 1.3 billion people! Europe loves basketball too -- especially Russia and Spain.
-Reza
Yes I know that cricket is played in only a few countries about only 17 countries. But it becamed popular as their is a huge population in south Asia. But still about 70% of countries at all do not know what cricket is!
-Adiv
It's the original form of hockey, very unknown in the U.S.A
-Jakestone1337
Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, Muarry tennis should be first
-Dandomvic
Hi
-adi
Soccer popular in North America,South America,Europe,Africa,Asia in all those areas.@litunabryan25.Soccer or Football is the most popular Sports in the World not only popular most beautiful Sports in the World
-Sanjoy_ghosh
I agree with the ranking and also happy that cricket is 2nd it can and will be no 1 sports in the world in next 4 years
I LOVE CRICKET, from PAKISTAN
-HK
hell no
-Gosoccer
cricket sucks it shouldn't even be no.2 and the best sport in the world is and always will be football(soccer) I am from india and who said football isn't famous over here football is a passion for many people over here it is everyone's game it unites people from all social background and i am sure that over the next few years football(soccer) will be the most famous sport in south asia especially in india.
-hardcoremessi
Nice list... Apart from large number of fans in Asia, I think Cricket is slowly gaining popularity across the globe with the entertaining 20-20 format!
-JP
cricket is rightly 2nd football is definetly
more popular but opinion-wise i like cricket better though soccer deserves to sit at 1st place
-Raafey10,Paki
no FOOTBALL will be top forever,
-Sanjoy_ghosh
If cricket is populer in tiny over populated country then soccer is populer in tiny countries with very small population... In some european countries less population is a is a national issue of debate... Or we can say europe is unable to produce someone ? Dont permit gay culture or one day, you will be finished......
-Montyjadhav
you know im am accually not a big fan of soccer idk why it just doesnt hold my attention very well
-DJ43209
That last comment will never happen. Fotball will always be #1 and us still growing!! Every county has a fotball team in the world and theres so many ciunties with out a cricket national team and theres not even an organized world wide event
-Milanrayos
Football/Soccer is the best
-Sanjoy_ghosh
Under the FIFA RANKING 208countries Played FOOTBALL/SOCCER,and also every county under the FIFA membership in whole World,I am die hard fan of Football from INDIA
-Sanjoy_ghosh
Soccer is # 1 sport and I played soccer and I am not gay. That is not a slam on people that are gay but why do some like Hope Kelley have to bring up remarks that have nothing at all to do with the sport itself.
-DGriggs
Yea, also I think crickets at 2 because its so popular in the indian subcontinent. Especially Indians, have some genetic similarity when it comes to cricket. And there are like 1,000,000,000+ people in India. Of course cricket will be top.
-Adrian
cricket is not more popular than soccer, more countries represent soccer than the U.N that's a lot of countries.
-Dsennet98
If Cricket is placed at #2 due to its popularity on the Indian subcontinent ie: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka........I have a hard time believing that Table-Tennis is only placed at #6 as I can't even begin to describe it's popularity in China, not to mention Thailand and various other heavily populated east asian countries.
I have personally travelled through the Indian Sub-continent and can certainly tell you that I was simply amazed at the popularity of Cricket. It is played everywhere, or more accurately anywhere where there is available space......be it in cities or villages you are sure to see an impromtu game wherever you go.....often played with makeshift bats and stumps and often with a roundish shaped stone in place of a ball.
I have also travelled around China and most of S.E Asia and can also tell you that Table-Tennis is just as popular in China as Cricket is on the Indian Sub-continent. Every small town has several Table-Tennis tables for use free of charge and they are heavily used at all times of the day and night. Obvioulsly due to the population of China, their dominance of the sport should also be noted, I really can't see why this sport is placed behind Tennis, Hockey and Volleyball.....considering that there are over 300 million amateur players in China alone.
a little thought for you all.....If Football (Soccer) is placed first, with Cricket second and Table-Tennis third......I would then go as far as saying Badminton should be placed fourth, or if a little controversial it should certainly be placed above American Football (Football/Gridiron). This again is due to the absolutely huge popularity in China, of which I cannot even begin to express....I'd even say moreso than Table-Tennis, but I'll leave it for now.
So there you go......just my opinion
-Lee
no FOOTBALL(SOCCER) is the MOST POPULAR SPORT IN THE WORLD.EVERY COUNTRIES Played FOOTBALL/SOCCER.in FIFA ranking 208 Countries played FOOTBALL.How many Countries play Cricket?
-Sanjoy_ghosh
my friend thinks football is better than soccer
-Gotze
i think yall is wrong soccer 1 and basketball 2 and baseball 3
-jacob
Who cares about indonesia ?
-tony magwaire
You are very very bad person. You are boooooorrrriiinnnggg. Cricket is boooooorriiinnng.
-Milanrayos
208 Countries Played FOOTBALL,ha HA Cricket
-Sanjoy_ghosh
Cricket is a game of pure skills and patient.....it is the most popular game as indians, pakis, aussies, south africans and english love it.....other countries like ireish, dutches, canadians etc are also attracting towards it.
-THE GREAT INDIAN
what where is basketball and baseball is this for sure accurate
-CCTBarth77
wwooww what bout basketball and football is famous then tennis volley ball are boring then basketball and football
-Djjet99
You known what? some country don't know what cricket is, but most country love soccer
-van may Dang
Cricket is my life and passion, but lets face it, when the Fifa starts, i honestly give more interest in that then in soccer only because there are more teams, and like 95 % + of people in the world watch it
-Bilal
soccer (football) not as popular in south america? are you sure? Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, chile etc etc its the only sport
-Garyinbarcelona
Where the duck is badminton, how the duck is cricket more popular than badminton?
-Afasd
I think the most popular game is Foodball.
-Jupiter
no Football is numer 1 game in the World
-Sanjoy_ghosh
I agree with most, but rugby is a bit more popular than table tennis.
-Thatoneguy511
no way, federer, murray?
-Concerned Cricket Fan
I am sure soccer is way over the most popular than cricket. First, south and central america don't even know if cricket exists , second it is played and watched over 97.9% of all people that live there. As well as Europe, Africa, except that tiny country called South Africa that is located in South Africa. And I know that in those tiny, over poputated Asian countries, soccer is not as popular as in South America, Central America and carib, Europe, Africa except that tiny country called South Africa, and the whole middle east, where soccer is so popular and growing. And finally, soccer will be not only the most popular like now but also way over the best and most popular.
-Litumabryan25
cricket FTW
-Anonymous
where the hell is baseball
-Alexpalmer
ur gay
-Hopekellyisgay
basketball should be number 2!
-dandirk_41
yeah,you right!cricket gonna be second mate!its popular all over s .asia ,its our soul mate!
-Pasan Taruka
speaking like that in which i Agree where the duck is rugby union
-Oddaball13-25
Dear Kovana, Thanks for pointing out. This list is created using Alexa API and visitor traffic of sports websites. Alexa has clubbed Rugby websites along with American Football in the sports category. We are working on manually separating American Football and Rugby stats (also some other categories like water/winter sports). The lists will be updated soon, along with other interesting stats. Till that time, Rugby will appear as American Football on all pages on this site.
-Admin
Here is the proof, now shut your mouth....
Most Frequently Cited Ranked Lists1) Football: 3.3-3.5 billion fans (Europe, Africa, Asia, Americas, etc.) 2) Cricket: 2-3 billion fans (India, UK, Pakistan, Asia, Australia, etc.) 3) Field hockey: 2-2.2 billion fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia) 4) Tennis: Around 1 billion fans (Europe, Americas, Asia) 5) Volleyball: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Americas, Australia) 6) Table tennis: Around 900 million fans (Asia, Europe, Africa, Americas) 7) Baseball: Around 500 million fans (US, Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic) 8) Golf: Around 400 million fans (US, Canada, Europe) 9) Gridiron (American football): 390-410 million fans (US mainly) 10) Basketball: Not more than 400 million fans (US, Canada mainly)
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What...
-Rahul 123
whats up with field hockey -.-
-this site and indians
look to be honest football is the best sport in history in WW1 on the first christmas of this war both sides seezed fire for that one day and they got out there trenches and played football so that proves that football has more passion , togetherness , devotion and even in any surcomestances football is loved by everyone...
-john frm scotland
Sorry.. You had a good list there.. But when i saw Baseball and AMERICAN football and then i laughed.
How can you add American Football when only America Plays it?
Rugby would have been a better addition... You got over 100 nations playing it at some level. And of course it has a World cup that is 2nd only to FIFA soccer and also on Par with the olympics in Match attd and Viewing.
Also forgot to mention that rugby is also NOW AN OLYMPIC SPORT.. When will baseball and American Football get that status?
-Kovana
football is the best game i have ever played and i love football,football is my life i cannot live without football.As all are going mad on cricket now a days i m very happy to see that football is still alive in the hearts of people.Football is the best game and will always be at #1.India is a cricket loving country and being a indian i still love football and i m happy to see that many indians like me love football.
FOOTBALL IS THE BEST AND ALWAYS WILL BE.I LOVE FOOTBALL!!!!
-harshita singh
LOL - Wishful thinking. They're both great sports, but there's no point in deluding yourself that Cricket is popular outside of the handful of nations that play it. The only reason it rates highly is that India makes up such a massive chunk of the world's population.
-Dan
Oh , how is this popular sports list complete, Cricket should not be considered as a sport god damn. I live in London and walking in the park and watching people playing that so called sport makes me sick. 10 people standing doing nothing.. Try a true sport, like rugby, basketball, football u lazy ass 'players'. you prob cant even get fit while playing cricket... I do understand, that Indians, Pakistanians, etc., are to small or to weak to play a propa sport, but TRY IT
-Cricketaintasport
This is so stupid. Cricket is very popular but usually a sport that popular is common is most countries. Cricket is only common in a few
-Jordan T.
I Agree That Soccer Is The Most Popular Sport In The World Considering That Most People All Over The World Play It !
-Alexisrivas
I disagree with your poll, i think you need to go and look at Judo in the world and then you might be shocked. Soccer is the most popular but Judo is right up there as it is in almost all countries of the World. Brazil has more than 2.5 Million Judo players for instance.
-Paul
it's way better than cricket !
-king of the world
mainly just america? what? In Cuba, Japan, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Panama, Uganda baseball is huge. Basketball is big too in most of Europe so thats an incredibly stupid comment
-Rbstegman
soccers gay
-Hope Kelley
I LUUUUUVVVVVV SOCCCEEERRR
-You dont need to know
Football sucks in india... Every football nation wants to enter in indian market and to popularise football but no one cares about it in india... It is played in small states like sikkim goa meghalaya and in kolkata where cricket rules as a no.1 sport.... Football have no future in this country becuse we love our cricket and field hockey.....we dont care about whether cricket played world wide or not.... Its the teligion in India and remains forever....
-Manojjadhav
Oh, but it is 6-10... wow.
-Thatoneguy511
lol 40% max, there was 67.7 million viewers on t.v, i know people watch the game together blah blah so yah still definitly shattered records.
-N_g_k_01