Most Watched Sports in the World

Most Watched Sports

#1 Soccer

Most Watched Sports: The name that tops the chart for most watched sport is Soccer. It is a game played between two teams comprising of 11 players each. The objective of the game is to score by using any part of the body besides the arms and hands to get the football into the opposing goal.

The game has the most number of fans in almost all parts of the world. The popularity of the sport has spread across 200 countries, with over 250 million people playing it. Soccer is the number 1 sport in the number of amateur players around the world as well. There are thousands of amateur soccer players in every major city all over the world Speaking of TV viewership, soccer no doubt rules the same and so is the case for TV Rights Deals. Soccer has the most profitable TV rights deals for FIFA.

The game is also very popular in terms of digital platforms. Every major search engines witness hundreds of millions of searches related to soccer, its players and different teams. When it comes to social media be it Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, Soccer stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Neymar seem to be ruling them with the most number of followers, likes, and shares

#2 Cricket

A game played between two teams with 11 players each, achieved its popularity after the introduction of the T20 format. Cricket is very popular in India, Pakistan, Australia, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe. Overall, with about 2 to 3 billion fans, cricket has the 2nd highest number of fans in the world.

Cricket is the most-watched sport in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, South Africa, and Australia. It is one of the most-watched sports in the UK. About 2.2 Billion people from around the world watched the Cricket World Cup 2015 on their televisions.

ICC, the global governing body for world cricket grosses hundreds of millions of dollars for the TV rights deals of its major tournaments like the ICC T20 World Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup (50 Overs), and ICC Champions Trophy. The TV rights for the bilateral series among different countries are also worth hundreds of millions of dollars in many cases. IPL the Indian Premier League launched a decade back, is one of the top leagues of any sport in the world and Big Bash in Australia is another major league of cricket.

#3. Basketball

The fan base for Basketball is wide, ranges from two to three billion. Where most of the fans hail from Canada, the USA, Japan, China, and the Philippines.

It enjoys great TV viewership in the US. NBA the national Basketball league of the US is the most popular league in the world and it is watched and followed by millions of fans in the US as well as outside the US.

In 2016, the NBA sold the TV rights deal for a staggering $24 billion for 9 years. This comes down to about $2.6 Billion per year.

Basketball is quite popular on the Internet. The bigger names of the game like Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Kobe Bryant are followed by millions of people around the world. While, the NBA is by far the most popular League in Basketball.

#4 Hockey

Most Watched Sports:  The game has a moderate level of popularity on the Internet. The number of hockey-related searches varies by country and by season. The presence of hockey on social media is not that impressive though.

There are numerous professional leagues of both ice hockey as well as field hockey around the world. North America and Europe, in particular, have the most number of professional leagues of the sport. The NHL of the US is the biggest hockey league in the world.

#5 Tennis

Last but not least at number 5 is Tennis. Tennis has a decent fan base throughout the world. Although it is more popular in developed countries than developing countries. Tennis legends like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are known widely around the world and have hundreds of millions of fans throughout the world.

The major competition of Tennis, that is the four grand slams, is watched by more than 400 million people around the world. The TV rights deals for Wimbledon, Australian Open, French Open, and the US Open as well as for other major tennis events around the world goes over millions of dollars in revenue.

The sport has decent popularity on the Internet as well, in fact, it is the 3rd most popular sport on the internet after football and cricket. Tennis players enjoy a pretty good presence on social media. The superstars like Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, etc. have millions of fans following them on social media networks.