In some ways, Americans are quite unique in their sporting preferences. As mentioned above, we greatly prefer stock racing (NASCAR) while the rest of the world prefers open-wheel, especially Formula 1. In fact, most world wide connoisseurs of auto racing consider stock car racing as an inferior form of auto racing. This belief has not deterred some of the world’s best drivers (e.g., Juan Pablo Montoya and Dario Franchitti) from trying their luck with NASCAR, however. We Americans also prefer our hard-hitting, full contact, running, kicking, and passing offensive-oriented version of football while the rest of the world prefers the low-scoring, kicking a ball back-and-forth, defensive-minded futbol (soccer). On the other hand, Americans do play soccer—there’s an adage that states, “American youth playsoccer, but they watch football.” We also participate in many other universal sports such as running, swimming, volleyball, tennis, golf, basketball, and rugby. Determining a ranking of the world’s most popular sports presents a more daunting challenge than attempting a ranking of the U.S. top sports positions, as data from countries across the globe must be tallied and totaled. Although some of the studies we reviewed showed slight differences in the middle of the “Top 10” ranking order, the listed sports themselves were consistent. Furthermore, there appears to be a universal agreement over the world’s top two most popular sports. It should be noted that this ranking combines participation with viewership.
Undoubtedly, most readers already know that soccer, or futbol, is the most popular sport in the world. The game is played in more than 100 nations around the world and is especially big in Europe, South America, Mexico, China, and Africa. Soccer’s World Cup, played every four years, is the most watched sporting event in the world, drawing nearly a billion viewers for the championship game alone. The two authors were in Europe during the 2006 World Cup events and can attest to the passionate involvement throughout the continent, with countless people wearing their teams’ colors and cheering madly for their favorite athletes.
Have you thought about the second most popular sport in the world? The answer may surprise you. It is cricket.
Yes, cricket, a sport that very few Americans have ever played or watched. Cricket’s popularity is due to its distinction as the number one sport in the populous India, as well as the smaller nations of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Australia, and parts of the Caribbean and Africa. Tennis and field hockey are generally ranked as the third and fourth most popular sports, followed by baseball, basketball, and volleyball. Rounding out the top 10 are table tennis (ping pong), rugby and golf. It should be noted that auto racing (primarily Formula 1) ranks higher than many of these sports when the participation factor (few people actually race cars) is eliminated from the ranking formula.