According to the World Sports Encyclopedia, around the world, there are more than 8,000 different sports and sporting games. In the United States, football is the most popular sport, but it doesn’t compare to the popularity of other sports worldwide. From the team at AAA State of Play comes this new infographic that serves as the ultimate guide to showing the most popular sport in every country.
Several sports were considered to be the most popular in at least one country globally, with those sports including association football (soccer), cricket, baseball, rugby, basketball, ice hockey, australian football, archery, boat racing, american football, gaelic football, mongolian wrestling, and windsurfing. Some are popular in many more countries than others. For example, while American football is only the most popular sport in the United States, soccer is the most popular sport in 155 different countries around the world.
Following soccer, it would be cricket that would be the sport that’s the most popular in the second most countries, with those being Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Barbados, Guyana, Indian, Jamaica, Nepal, Pakistan, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sri Lanka, and lastly Trinidad and Tobago. Rugby is another sport that is the most popular in several countries, namely in Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, and Tonga.
Also, while baseball may be considered to be the pastime of America, it’s not even the most popular sport there, but is in nine different countries, which includes Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and Venezuela. Above all else, however, soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with the World Atlas reporting that there are more than 3.5 billion fans of the sport worldwide. In fact, in 2022, more than 1.5 billion people tuned in to watch the World Cup, which also generated nearly six billion engagements on social media.
